Our Favorite Mistake
by Familiar-abyss
Summary: "Wouldn't want a scary maid to throw her feather duster at me," she said sullenly. "Yes Yuki," Dante responded sarcastically, "I go to great lengths to ensure your safety against feathers. Now you know why you've never had a down quilt."
1. Chapter 1

Shit

I do not own Devil May Cry or any of it's characters and anything else I need to say so I don't get myself into trouble.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Dante muttered with every step, pacing by the bathroom door.

"How easy do you think it is to piss with you right outside the door!?" the occupant screamed.

"Just do it already!" He reached for the door knob, and was treated to a hair-raising electrical shock for the action. Women! He hit the door in frustration and left the room, deciding he wanted a beer.

Surprisingly, he had an untouched six-pack in his fridge. He ripped a can out of the box automatically and threw himself onto one of his ragged couches. A spring bounced out of a cushion with the force. Crap. He'd have to replace that. It was just as well since the couch smelled like ass anyway. His thoughts couldn't distract him for long (he didn't have that many to begin with) and he hauled himself off of the seat in one lithe movement and began pacing once more. How long had it been? Had she even peed yet? When did he finish his beer? He crushed it with little effort and went back for another.

As he was walking back to the couch he noticed her standing halfway down the stairs, glaring at him as if he had just ran over her puppy.

"You better get me a ring," she answered his questioning look through gritted teeth.

Shit.

Trish was sitting on a couch in the corner, a new couch, Dante thought venomously. How she had talked him into letting her redecorate the Devil May Cry was beyond him, it looked like the queer-eye guys had a decorative orgy in here. No, the coffee table and house plant did not scream 'an infamous devil hunter lives here,' quite the opposite in fact. His eyes returned to Trish, she was sitting under the picture of their shotgun wedding, and she had been the one holding the shotgun all the way up until he had said "I do". Her stomach was round and swollen, her new short hair-do was rumpled and she was resting her pregnancy-enlarged feet on the aforementioned coffee table. God she looked hot, Dante though ruefully. She was carrying his baby after all. He told her that he didn't care if it was a boy or a girl, just so long as it wasn't twins. She had laughed at him for that and assured him that if she had to squeeze out two 'miracles' he wouldn't be around to see them anyway, because she would kill him.

The two of them had relocated to a spacious apartment in the city (thank god Trish was better with her money than Dante was his, although he still didn't know the number to their 'joint account'). The place was baby-proofed, Trish was finishing reading her umpteenth thousandth parenting magazine and Dante was finally past the 'are you really sure it's mine?' stage. This baby was coming. Soon, if he remembered the number of months right.

"Hey," he spoke to Trish without turning his head or opening his eyes, he was comfortably perched in his chair after all, "do demons give birth like normal people? The thing isn't going to pop out of you and start eating the nurses right?" He smiled at the joke he thought he made. There was no response. Weird, Trish usually jumped down his throat at things like that. He quickly got his answer when he found himself falling off of the chair that had just been swiped from under him. His ass collided with the floor heavily, eyes flying open to see Trish not even one foot away from his face. Damn, he forgot how good at that she was.

"I told you not to call the baby that anymore," she growled.

"No," he replied as he stood and wiped off the area that had sported the brunt of the impact, "you told me not to call the baby 'it' we never discussed 'thing'."

"Why won't you just call it 'the baby'?" she threw her hands up in frustration.

"Why won't you let me know what the sex is? Then we can just call it by name." An electric shock ran through him causing his teeth to slam shut and his eyes to roll back in their sockets. "My bad," he muttered after recovering, "then we can just call **the baby** by name."

"Because I want to be surprised."

"Hasn't it already surprised us enough for one life time? It's not like it was planned." Dante could brag that he was an excellent shot, a great swordsman or even a powerful demon hunter, but smart he was not, as he realized while waking up from being knocked out cold. Trish stood above him, looking him in the face from beyond her belly. Dante groaned as he rubbed his head. Yup, definitely fried some neurons.

"This," Trish started sharply, pointing at her stomach, "is a baby. YOUR baby, and deserves to be called so."

Dante rolled over and lifted himself to his knees, making him just a little taller then the belly. He placed his hands around it gently, felt up, down and sighed.

"No." he said simply as he rose to his feet.

"No?" Trish inquired.

"No, it's not a baby, it's a thing in your stomach, and will be until it's out." Dante shrugged, "that's just how I see it." Trish sighed.

"Fine. I give up, my baby is an 'it'," she went to where Dante was sitting at the desk.

"I thought you just said it was MY baby," he smiled wickedly. She looked as though she was about to dive into another argument but was cut off when Dante abruptly stood and closed his lips onto hers in one quick movement. She melted into the kiss and accepted it passionately. "You're very pretty today," Dante whispered to her, that wicked grin of his permanently etched into his face. She relented.

"You're impossible," she smiled.

"You've always loved a challenge." He retorted quickly. Her response was cut off by the shrill tone of the phone.

"Devil May Cry," Dante answered, keeping one arm wrapped around his wife. "Yeah, sure, give me 10 minutes." He hung up and kissed Trish once more. "Gotta go make the world safe for our baby." He grabbed his guns, slung Rebellion over his back and walked to the door.

"It," Trish corrected impishly. Dante turned and gave her that dazzling smile that had gotten them into this mess in the first place, then left.

Shit. Shit. Shit. He was pacing again, remembering when he had done this last. He refused to go back into the hospital rooms, they gave him the heebie-jeebies. To his disappointment Trish didn't seem to mind, she seemed almost happier with the arrangement. She had been very business-like all morning. When her water broke she had simply gathered her things and ordered Dante to drive, he didn't even know what was going on until about halfway to the hospital. From there she checked herself in and left him in the waiting room. That had been 12 hours ago, he had already raided the vending machine, slept on one of the couches and tried to bring whiskey into the hospital, now he was just bored. The fact that his child was soon going to be apart of this world hadn't hit home yet, he didn't even know if Trish was in labor. The thought sent a sudden nervous realization in him. She was going into labor. Labor. HIS baby was going to born, soon. So here he was, pacing by the double doors and cursing.

There was a scream from beyond the doors, he knew that voice, and was dashing through the doors before he knew what he was doing. Dante was at her side in an instant, ready to cut down any demon stupid enough to hurt his wife, but there was no one there, just Trish. Her forehead was sweaty and her breathing came in fast, shallow breaths.

"Get it out of me!" she screamed, which turned into an agonized moan. Dante bit back the urge to correct her use of 'it', tapping into his rarely used self-control. Instead he opted for taking some of the ice chips in the cup sitting by the bed and dabbing them gently over her head. She sighed and closed her eyes. It was then that a fat little nurse came frittering in, whipped back the blanket coving what now belonged to Dante and began to probe. Dante watched in fascination from Trish's head, having no real desire to see what was going on down there. The nurse re-emerged a moment later.

"You look like you're ready to deliver," she said with a smile.

"What tipped you off!?" Trish shot back irritably; the nurse ignored her and instead turned to Dante.

"If you're going to be in the room while she gives birth you'll have to put on some scrubs." Dante was about to decline and say he was going to wait out side, but he glanced at his wife's eyes first and saw something he didn't know existed in her, just the tiniest trickle of fear.

"K," he answered simply, letting the nurse lead him away for the moment as others entered the room to prep Trish...

She was squeezing his hand off and yelling words that could have scorched your ears. Dante had gotten over the fact that his newly acquired scrubs made him look like the 'green giant' and was focusing on Trish. She had been pushing like this for over two hours and he wasn't enjoying the nervous looks that the nurses were giving each other. The strain was beginning to take its toll on Trish, sweat rolled off of her in peals and her yells had become hoarse, her squeezing hand however was doing just fine.

"It's crowning!" the doctor yelled triumphantly. He had been about five minutes from ordering a c-section and was pleased to finally see some progress. Dante froze, barely feeling his hand as Trish continued to squeeze it off. This was it. His baby was coming.

"Just one more big push!" the doctor encouraged. Trish obliged and gave one final groan. The room was silent for a minute, and then was filled with the sound of an infant crying. Trish fell back, exhausted. Dante gently wiped the sweat from her forehead.

"Congratulations, it's a girl," the doctor handed the baby to a nurse who handed her to Dante. The baby had stopped crying and was looking around the room with bright green eyes. Dante was holding her carefully, afraid that he might break her. He looked at the baby, the very thing he had been calling 'it' for the past 7 months, and couldn't for the life of him remember how he had been so callous. She was perfect.

"She's so tiny," was all he could think to say. Trish smiled, knowing that 'tiny' was not how she wanted to describe the child she had just spent two hours pushing out. One of the nurses came back to Dante to retrieve the child who he reluctantly handed over. They left the new parents to their privacy.

"So what should we name her?" he asked while wiping strands of hair out of his wife's face.

"I don't know. What do you think?" she asked, closing her eyes. Dante thought a minute, he hadn't considered the name.

"How about Yuki?"

"Why?"

"It means snow, for her hair."

"hmm," Trish thought it over a moment. "I like it, Yuki. But she might get teased, it's not exactly a common name."

"Don't worry. I'll make sure that she can handle herself." Trish smiled at that. She could just imagine the fighter her daughter was going to grow up to be.

"Yuki," she said once more, then fell asleep with Dante stroking her hair.

I promise that this story eventually becomes more than just mini stories, just wait until Yuki grows up a little. Please let me know if I'm staying true to Dante's character or if I need to fix anything! Thanx!!


	2. Chapter 2

The night was quiet, finally

The night was quiet, finally. Two exhausted parents were sound asleep in their bed. The constant sound of traffic far bellow was muffled by the curtains. It was a rare peaceful moment, so naturally it wasn't going to last.

Dante was awakened by little hands trying to pry his eyes open.

"Yuki," he groaned and turned over. Three years had passed quickly, his little girl was now walking, talking, and some-what potty trained.

"Daddy!" she rejoiced, "Daddy I want water."

"No, you'll pee in your bed," Dante's voice was muffled by his pillow, Trish sighed in irritation, she wanted to sleep.

"Go back to bed Yuki," she instructed sternly.

"No, want water, thirsty." Trish sighed again, she was going to have to spend some time on Yuki's grammar. Dante growled, a sound that Yuki had come to know as 'drop it', but she was persistent. "Pwease?" Dante growled once more but sat up, Yuki promptly grabbed his hand and tugged. He grabbed her with one arm around her waist and carried her back into her room. He plunked her on her bed and knelt down so that he was on her level.

"Yuki, you've got to go back to sleep." He was almost pleading, he had never been any good with being stern with her, that was Trish's job.

"But water!" Yuki whined.

"No, I told you, you'll pee in your bed." Dante was tired, he hadn't had a chance to come home in three days and had been looking forward to a solid nights sleep. Yuki's eyes lit up mischievously.

"Bet?" she asked innocently. Dante had to grin, she was definitely his kid.

"I don't have any change on me kid." He told her honestly. Yuki smiled and scooted off her bed. She ran to her piggy bank only to discover it was empty (she had inherited her father's way with money), she frowned, then ran quickly out of the room. Dante watched, not really feeling up to the challenge of chasing her around. Yuki returned a moment later with something clutched tightly in her fist.

"Penny in couch!" she yelled triumphantly. She jumped back onto the bed and handed the coin to Dante, who flipped it into the air. "Heads!" She called happily. The coin dropped back down, Dante caught it, slapped it on top of his other hand and looked at it.

"Crap." Of course the kid had also inherited her mothers luck. Dante rose to go retrieve the glass of water, knowing that Trish was going to make him clean the sheets in the morning.

Trish walked through the front door, the wounds she had received earlier long since healed. She barely had time to hang her keys on the hook before a short blur of white latched onto her leg.

"Mommy!" cried Yuki, holding tightly to her mother's leg, "Daddy's possessed!" Trish looked questioningly at her five-year-old, the little girl had tears in her eyes.

"I'm not possessed," Dante turned the corner, "she's just mad at me." He was running his hand through his long white hair; Yuki looked at him with apprehension.

"What happened," Trish asked suspiciously.

"Daddy attacked me!" Yuki yelled, her tears flowing more freely. Trish reached down and picked her daughter up, Yuki held on fiercely.

"Yuki," Dante began, but the little girl hid her face in her mother's hair. Trish glared at him, waiting for an explanation. Dante just gave her a shrug and Yuki began crying louder. Trish's glare became dangerous, turning into a 'you better not have hurt my baby' glare, one that Dante was certain would shorten his life if he didn't offer an explanation.

He sighed, this sucked. "She broke into the weapons room," he explained. Trish's eyes went wide, then back into her deadly glare. "She didn't get hurt," he continued quickly, "I caught her before she could do any damage."

"And then he attacked me!" Yuki sobbed.

"I didn't attack her," Dante retorted defensively, "I just gave her a swat on the butt."

"Oh!" Trish was surprised, this was not what she expected. Dante couldn't even handle sending Yuki to time-out.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dante was still on the defensive.

"It's just, really? You?" Trish almost laughed.

"Hey, I can take care of our kid too." It was Dante's turn to glare. The potential stare-off was cut short by Yuki's loud sniffing. She didn't like to be ignored. Trish huffed and walked to the couch. She set Yuki down in front of her and looked her daughter in the eyes. The tears were gone now, Dante had hurt her pride more than her butt.

"Yuki, Mommy and Daddy have told you that that room is off limits," Yuki leaned back, these lectures could last a long time, Trish believed in explaining what was happening to her daughter and vowed to never say 'because I said so.' "And when daddy caught you in the room…" she continued, Dante cut her off.

"She's not listening Trish," Dante was smiling, "she's seen me listen to your lectures, she knows how to tune you out." He sat on the couch beside his daughter, who promptly scooted away. Dante watched her and waited until she settled herself again before he grabbed her and sat her on his lap. She struggled to get away and he let her figure out on her own that her efforts would be in vain. Yuki refused to give up, she was too much like her dad.

"Yuki," Dante was speaking while she struggled, "you know I didn't attack you," he couldn't tell if she could hear him or not while she was so vigorously trying to escape his grasp, but he continued anyway, "that room is dangerous, you could get seriously hurt. I saw you in there and I got scared so I did something that would make sure you wouldn't go in there again." Lectures really weren't his thing and he just wanted his daughter to stop being angry with him.

To his surprise Yuki stopped struggling and just looked at him.

"You were scared?" she asked him incredulously.

"Yeah," Dante began to stroke her hair, thinking that he was having a serious heart to heart with his daughter. Trish was watching from where she was perched on the other end of the couch.

"Tsk," Yuki looked at her father condescendingly, "only babies get scared daddy." She informed him seriously. Trish laughed, loud, rich peals of laughter. Dante growled at his daughter and stood, causing Yuki to tumble gracelessly from his lap.

"I'm going to work," Dante grumbled, shooting his wife a look. Trish didn't even notice because of the tears that were welling up in her eyes, she was still gasping for air between laughs. Yuki just watched her father leave, a triumphant smile lighting up her face.

Thanks so much for the reviews! Keep 'em coming : )


	3. Chapter 3

Dane was sitting at his desk in the Devil May Cry, looking at nothing in particular, just thinking

Dane was sitting at his desk in the Devil May Cry, looking at nothing in particular, just thinking. Yuki was playing with a gun, taking it apart and putting it back together, later Dante was going to show her how to clean it. She was five-years-old now and still showed no signs of her demon heritage. When she got cut, the wounds healed at the same rate as a human, she would get colds and the chicken pox and she didn't have extraordinary strength or stamina. She was in every sense, human. Of course that hadn't stopped Dante from teaching her the basics of fighting and defense.

Yuki looked up at him, hoping he had noticed how quickly she had just put his gun back together, her hopes were not in vain.

"That was quick," he noted in approval, she beamed.

"Daddy," she rose from where she had been sitting on the floor, "will you teach me how to shoot?" She looked up at him with big eyes and an innocent expression she knew he couldn't resist. Dante just smirked.

"Sorry kid," he reached up to ruffle her hair, she grimaced. "I'm not teaching you until you're heavy enough to handle the kick." She smoothed her hair down and looked up at him in annoyance.

"Don't do that daddy," she was still trying to tame her hair down. Dante grinned widely, then leaned back in his chair, propped his feet up on the desk and closed his eyes. Yuki just watched, boredom beginning to set in. She wandered the Devil May Cry for a bit, ran her hands across her fathers gun collection while weighing the pros and cons of what would happen if she took any of them out (the cons out weighed the pros, she had no desire to spend the rest of her day in a corner) but in the end she succumbed to her boredom.

The day was nice outside, the sun was shining and there were no clouds. Yuki looked over at her father, he was sound asleep.

"He won't mind if I go for a walk," she said quietly to herself. She slipped out the back door so she wouldn't ring the bell hanging over the front door and was walking down the sidewalk in a matter of seconds. The windows didn't do this day justice, it was perfect! The sun was warm on her face and washed away any apprehensions she had about coming outside. She had been walking for two blocks before even considering where she was going. There was an ice cream parlor about a block away and she had a rare five dollar bill in her pocket, so she decided on a strawberry sundae and headed that way.

After buying her ice cream, eating it, and using her change on the arcade game inside, she decided that she had better get back to the Devil May Cry before Dante woke up. To her surprise it had begun raining outside. She scoffed at the people running with their hands over their head as if to shield themselves from the rain. It was only water, what was the big deal?

Her walk home was more enjoyable in the rain, at least for the first twenty minutes. It was then she realized that she may be lost. Once that thought set in she began to panic. Nothing looked familiar, how long had she been gone? She ran down one street only to find another which was just as strange. She was confused, looking all around her until she thought that she had spotted something familiar rising over the tops of the buildings, was that the sign to the ice cream parlor? There was an ally way that looked like it cut across a couple of streets; she took it with out hesitation. The ally took an unexpected turn a little ways down, but she was stubborn and continued to follow it.

"Well hello," a raspy voice startled her to a halt. "My, what do we have here?" The man in front of her was strange looking with bad teeth, eyes that looked in the opposite directions and a weird vibe he sent off that caused Yuki to shiver. "What's your name little one?"

"I'm not 'spossed to talk to strangers." Her voice had a shake in it.

"Are you lost?" His voice took on an ominous tone. Yuki just nodded. "Then I will take you home, you're daddy will be worried." The man reached his hand out to her and her shaking increased.

A loud gunshot halted the mans advance, and the two looked down the ally to see a tall, dark figure standing there.

"Get the hell away from my kid," the figure snarled, then squeezed another shot which barely missed the man's head. He was gone in an instant and Yuki was left staring at her father, both of them getting drenched in the rain. She looked for some sign of warmth, some comfort, but all she was treated to was his icy glare. He walked towards her slowly, boots echoing loudly on the wet pavement. Her chest felt tight, she was in big trouble.

Dante stopped next to her, looking down from his height at his all-too-fragile child. He couldn't remember ever being this angry at anyone, his brother included. She had scared the shit out of him, waking up to find his shop empty. He wanted to slap her, but decided against it when he laid eyes on her pitiful rain-soaked form. She was shivering still. Dante shrugged off his long red coat and draped it heavily around her shoulders.

"Daddy," she tried, but was cut off by his glare. She seriously wondered if she had been better off with that creepy guy. Dante reached down and slung her over his shoulder unceremoniously. She fought tears the entire way back to the Devil May Cry. Once back he marched up to the bathroom, filled the tub with warm water and set Yuki on the ground.

"Downstairs when you finish," his eyes were narrowed to prove that he wasn't playing around. Yuki just nodded weakly. Dante tossed one of his extra T-shirts on top of the toilet and left. Yuki got into the tub, her body welcomed the warmth but her mind was previously occupied. She tried to distract herself by soaping a dozen times, washing her snow white hair and playing with the rubber ducky she had demanded her father keep here but the attempts were fruitless. She remembered her father saying something once that summed up her situation perfectly.

"I'm screwed," she muttered. The bath tub had drained, her wet clothes were draped over the tub and she had gotten dressed in her father's over sized T-shirt, there was nothing left to do now but go downstairs. She took a deep breath, then proceeded her death march to meet her father. One at the bottom of the stairs she looked up tentatively and spotted Dante sitting on the edge of the coffee table, his hands folded under his chin. He pointed to the couch across from him and she obliged. She was nervous sitting right across from him, and he did nothing to ease the tension. Dante didn't even speak, he simply stared his daughter down as she shrunk into the couch.

The silence was getting to her. "I'm sorry," she whispered. Dante just raised an eyebrow. "Do you hate me now?" She asked even more quietly, tears forming in her eyes. At last she broke Dante's perfect composure.

"You're my kid Yuki, I could never hate you," his voice wasn't warm, it was still tainted with his anger, but at least he was finally speaking. "But I am royally pissed off at you." Yuki dropped her head.

"I know," was all she could think to say.

"Do you?" He asked doubtfully. Yuki shrunk down even more. "What you did," Dante stopped for a minute, if he wasn't careful he was going to start yelling. He took a quick breath to steady himself and continued again, "I'm going to let your mom do the lecture part," Yuki looked at him, eyes wide in horror.

"You're going to tell mommy!"

"Damn right," he snapped back, then sighed, taking on a softer tone, "this isn't one of those things we can keep between ourselves kid. You really screwed up."

"Is this worse then when I broke into the weapons room?" She asked, her beautiful green eyes as wide as ever.

"A lot worse," he replied. His little girl slumped back into the couch, entirely deflated.

"Mommy will be mad." She muttered to no one in particular. Dante just nodded grimly. The adrenalin that pumped through his system when he noticed she was gone was finally wearing off; relief was beginning to set in. He looked at his daughter, if possible she looked more pitiful now than she had in the ally. He stretched an arm out to her.

"Come here," he ordered softly. She complied almost immediately, pressing herself tightly into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her onto his lap. He held her like that as she cried.

"I was so scared daddy," she bawled into his vest, "I didn't know where I was!" Funny, he thought to himself, that had been the exact same reason he had been so damned scared too. He allowed her to cry herself out, all the while holding her tightly and stroking her wet hair. When the tears finally stopped flowing Yuki spoke.

"Daddy," Yuki began, her voice hoarse from crying, "I wanna go home now." Dante smiled.

"Whatever you say kid."

"You did what!" Trish screeched. This was bad. Her mother was taking the news worse than Yuki thought she would. Dante was sitting comfortably in one of the lounge chairs with closed eyes, content to listen to his wife lecture their daughter. Yuki was sitting on the edge of a chair in the dining room while her mother paced back and forth. "Do you have any idea how stupid that was…" Trish continued. Dante had already briefed Yuki on the rhetorical question, so she was aware that her mother wasn't expecting an answer.

Trish had already gone down the list of 'I can't believe', 'do you know what could have happened to you' and every possible scenario that would have occurred if Dante hadn't shown up. No, her mother definitely hadn't been happy about this whole situation, especially the part about the strange man. Now they were finally down to the punishment.

"No TV, no computer, no dessert…" That one didn't seem fair and Yuki began to protest, but one look from her father made her shut her mouth and listen to the rest of her sentence. "…and you will be cleaning the Devil May Cry top to bottom!" Trish was finally out of steam, and crossed her arms to wait for a response from her daughter. Yuki waited a minute and considered her punishments.

"Damn it."

Dante let out a laugh, that wasn't the response Trish had been waiting for. Yuki didn't care, she just slid off of the dinning room chair and walked over to Dante.

"Let's wrestle," she said simply, relieved to finally have this whole ordeal over with.

"Nope." Yuki looked at her dad with surprise, he never said no. He looked back at her and grinned, "no weapons training and no combat training." Yuki's jaw dropped. "Two weeks," Dante held up two fingers to solidify her final sentence.

"NO FAIR!" She yelled, then stomped back into her room.

Trish watched her daughter leave, then slid into Dante's lap. He welcomed the contact and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Wow. She must have really pissed you off." Trish noted after hearing her daughter's door slam shut.

"She scared the shit out of me. I thought I was going to kill her."

Trish laughed. "Welcome to the joys of parenthood."

Dante gave her a sour look, she simply met his gaze, her expression daring.

"Joys huh?" He made a throaty sound, then sprung from his chair landing Trish on the floor. His mouth was on hers in a second.

"Yuki is here," she objected.

"Yeah but she's pissed at me, she wont be out of her room until we drag her out for dinner, that's in two hours."

"Hmm," Trish considered, then stood and walked down the hall to their bedroom. "That's one hour and fifty nine minutes more then you'll need." There was a smirk on her face.

Dante chuckled, "wanna bet?" and followed his wife into the room.

Thanks so much for all of the reviews, this story was a little longer so I hope you all like it! I'll be away from my computer for about a week or so, so the next installment might take a little longer (sorry ) and keep an eye out for the creepy dude, he'll be back!


	4. Chapter 4

Yuki took a long breath in

Yuki took a long breath in. Today had been a long day, and it wasn't yet noon. This was supposed to be her first day of kindergarten, a day of wonder, learning and Popsicle-stick crafts. But she had been kicked out of the class early, and for such a stupid reason! She only punched Tommy, it's not like she broke his nose or anything. What was worse, the kid had actually cried! Now she was waiting patiently for one of her parents to come and pick her up outside the principal's office.

The principal had already tried to scold her, but after being called a string of nasty names he had decided to leave her on the bench to be dealt with later. So here she was, swinging her legs back and forth and not entirely convinced she had done anything wrong at all. She had been sitting here for over an hour, not really sure which of her parents would be available first. Boredom was a force to be reckoned with, however, and she began to hum a tune to herself.

"You are supposed to be quiet!" the secretary reprimanded harshly, Yuki just flipped her off.

The door to the office opened and Yuki grinned widely, it was her dad. Dante sauntered in lazily, not entirely thrilled to be outside the principal's office again, but curious to be on the parent's end of things. He looked at Yuki and gave her a quick wink.

"I'm here for the kid," he told the secretary. She just glared at him through her bifocals.

"Principal Taylor would like to speak with the two of you first." The sneer in her voice stung very little and Dante couldn't help but crack a grin.

"Could we take a rain check?"

"I'm afraid not, please take a seat and the principal will call you in shortly." She pointed to the bench to indicate that the conversation was over. Dante sighed loudly and sat down heavily beside his daughter. She scooted over to him happily and held up her fist.

"Look daddy!" she showed him the bruise around her knuckles. Dante chuckled.

"That's pretty good, who incurred your wrath?" Yuki gave him a questioning look. "Who'd ya punch?"

"Oh! Some boy named Tommy," she was still holding out her fist proudly when the principal opened the door to his office. He gave the girl a look of pure distain, she stared him boldly back in the eyes.

"This way please." He held the door open for Dante and Yuki and then shut it tightly behind them. "Please take a seat." The principal went to sit behind his desk and shuffled some papers around before addressing Dante. "Mr. Sparda," he began slowly, as if speaking to yet another child, "your daughter seems to think that using violence as a solution is acceptable."

"How else do you want her to get her point across," Dante smirked.

"With her words! If this is the kind of behavior we should expect from Yuki then I will have no choice but to expel her!"

Crap. It had taken Trish forever to get Yuki accepted into this school. He would never hear the end of it if he got their daughter expelled.

"There's no need for that," Dante sighed and straightened up in his chair. "Yuki," he addressed his daughter, "tell the man you're sorry."

Yuki looked her principal straight in the eye, "I'm very sorry for hitting, it was wrong." Dante had to keep from smiling, if you hadn't lived with this girl for five years you would have taken her apology seriously. All the same the principal still didn't look convinced.

"That's very nice Yuki, I'll make sure you get a chance to apologize to Tommy as well." Yuki grimaced. "But in the mean time, I suppose we could try an alternative to expulsion." He leaned back in his chair and thought a moment. "Perhaps detention would be acceptable. We've never had a kindergartner in detention before, but it seems appropriate considering."

"Fantastic," Dante rose to leave.

"That's not all, Mr. Sparda. Yuki, I'm done with you now, please wait for your father outside." Yuki looked at Dante, apprehension written across her face. Dante just nodded towards the door.

"I'll be out in a minute, don't get into any more trouble."

Yuki left and closed the door behind her, curious about what they were talking about. The door opened again in a few minutes. She quickly looked at her fathers face to try and determine what had passed between him and the principal, it was dark.

"Come on," he growled at Yuki, she followed without a word.

Once outside Dante led her to the old red convertible. He was strapping her in when she looked up at him again.

"Are you mad at me?" she asked straight out. Dante threw himself into the seat beside her.

"No." and they drove away.

The car ride was silent, Yuki was watching her father intently. If she wasn't the one responsible for her father's foul mood then it was the principal.

"You should have hit him," she spoke up. Dante looked at her through narrowed eyes.

"Some times, Yuki, it's really not ok to hit people." He spoke while looking straight ahead, his eyes clouded with anger.

"When?" Her question was sincere. A tired grin broke through his angry expression.

"I really don't know," he sighed and looked over to her, "so you called him a bastard?" Yuki grinned.

"No, I called him a dirty bastard. It's what mommy called someone one the phone once." Dante chuckled; at least this whole thing wasn't entirely his fault.

"So why'd you hit the kid?"

"He was making fun of my name." Her eyes looked dangerous. "He kept calling me yucky instead of Yuki, so I punched him in the mouth." Dante laughed out loud at this, remembering what his wife had said about Yuki's name all those years ago, and how his little girl had proved him right. They had parked outside of the Devil May Cry and Dante headed in. Yuki jumped out of her seat and grabbed his arm.

"So you're not mad at me?"

His look was surprised, "no, I told you that."

"Then why were you so cranky?" she held persistently onto his arm. He lifted the arm, and in turn his daughter, with little effort and looked her in the eyes.

"Your principal is a Jack-ass." She nodded and Dante set her down. "Go inside and get ivory, I'll teach you how to clean it." Yuki cheered happily and ran into the shop. Dante lingered outside. He ran a hand through his tangled hair.

"…she has proven thus far to be socially inadequate, and no wonder. Two hours to get a parent down here, and when you do show up you show me nothing but disrespect! How is she supposed to learn basic social skills when her role model is in essence a child?..." the principal's words were still ringing through his head.

"Come on daddy!" Yuki yelled from inside. He sighed again and walked to the door.

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Trish stopped outside the apartment for a minute, she wasn't entirely sure what she was going to walk into. Dante had been left with Yuki today, and he couldn't take her to the Devil May Cry because she had a fever. Trish groaned just thinking about the damage the two of them would have done. She slipped the key into the lock and let herself in. She had to step over Yuki's backpack, the papers had been scattered across the floor.

"So he did try to do homework with her," Trish smirked. Yuki was seven and in second grade now. She excelled in all subjects, but still refused to do her homework until the morning it was due. Trish could hear the screaming before she even had a chance to close the door. She walked cautiously down the front hall, the days events were obvious, the dining room chairs were stacked in a pyramid, the couch cushions were thrown around the living room and there were three new pictures drawn on the wall. Trish sighed and continued towards the screaming, which was now accompanied by something banging on the floor.

Trish turned the corner and saw Dante. He was sitting casually on the floor, leafing through a magazine. There was nothing odd about it at all, except for the fact that Yuki was flailing around on the floor trying to pry off a blindfold.

"What the hell is going on?" Trish asked, only mildly surprised.

"Hmm," Dante didn't look up from his magazine, "oh, she rolled her eyes at me."

"So you blindfolded her?" Trish knelt down to untie Yuki's blindfold.

"Solved the problem didn't it?" Dante continued turning the pages. Trish sighed and finished untying Yuki.

"Hi mommy!" Yuki said cheerfully once released.

"You drew on the walls again," Trish said sternly. Yuki's smile didn't drop.

"So did daddy!" she exclaimed and pointed to a particularly disturbing drawing. Trish glared at Dante, he pretended not to notice.

"Go get cleaned up for dinner Yuki," Trish was somewhat relieved that the damage hadn't been any worse. Yuki skipped down the hall to obey.

As soon as Yuki was out of sight Dante's casual expression turned into a scowl.

"What's wrong?" Trish was surprised at his sudden change in mood.

"Her principal called today," Dante answered curtly.

"Oh." Trish was thoughtful for a moment. It was no secret how Dante felt about the principal and vise versa. "What did he want?" she finally asked.

"The usual, I'm a crappy parent, Yuki can't afford to keep missing school and I think he threw in a crack about my mom."

Trish smiled at the joke and Yuki came skipping back down the hallway.

"What's for dinner?"

Her mother looked around the apartment and then back at Dante, he had covered his mood up when Yuki entered the room, but it was obvious that whatever the principal had said was weighing heavily on him.

"How about pizza?" she tried, hoping to lighten Dante's mood.

Yuki cheered and Dante stood, giving his wife a knowing look. Trish just shrugged and ushered Yuki out the door, Dante was close behind.

(I know it was a short chapter, but I needed some filler before I get into the next part, bare with me! Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed; your feed back is much appreciated!)


	5. Chapter 5

Five

Five

Yuki panted heavily, she was practicing with her father, today they focused on defense. Dante was throwing light jabs and she had to try and deflect them. Seeing as she was limited by her seven-year-old body, Yuki was doing well. She was taking instruction without her usual snarkiness and was throwing her whole self into the fight. Dante threw another easy punch which she dodged, a mischievous look forming on her face.

Dante threw a low jab and instead of hitting his hand away, Yuki danced out of the striking zone and flew back in, changing from defense to offense. Dante reacted on instinct and pushed the attack away, a little too hard. Yuki went sailing into the wall. The force of her impact knocked down one of the swords displayed on the wall. With a shout Dante lunged and caught the sword before it could hurt his daughter. He threw it to the side with a loud clatter and sat down heavily beside her.

"That was pretty good kid, just make sure you don't abandon your defense just to make a strike."

She wasn't listening, instead she was staring at the deep cut Dante had received when he grabbed the sword. The cut was knitting itself together.

"Why can't I do that?" She pointed to the cut and Dante looked down, confused.

"Do what? Get hurt?"

"No! Fix myself."

Dante realized what she must have seen, but he didn't have an answer for her.

"I dunno Yuki, maybe you will someday." He noticed her shallow intake of breath, "did I hurt you?" The concern was apparent in his voice and he reached over to her. Yuki slapped the hand away.

"No I'm fine." She rose to her feet but quickly doubled over with a sharp gasp.

"Right," Dante responded doubtfully and swept her into his arms despite her loud protests.

"I'm not a baby! Put me down! Daddy!!" Dante carried Yuki over to the sofa and set her gently down. "I told you I'm fine!"

"Hush," he said, his tone mildly amused. She shut her mouth. Dante rarely issued orders, but when he did they were meant to be followed. He gently prodded her ribs and watched for her reaction. She tried her best to show none, but couldn't help wincing when the pressure from her father's fingers sent a sharp pain up her side. He sighed and ruffled her hair. "Sorry kid, looks like I bruised your rib."

"It doesn't hurt," she lied.

Dante raised an eyebrow, "yeah," and poked her in the side a little more roughly.

Yuki yelped, "maybe a little," she admitted ruefully. "So what, if I can ever fix myself like you then getting hurt wont matter."

"Sure, but until then it does, I should probably bandage that."

"No!" Yuki yelled so suddenly that Dante was startled. "Mommy wont let me spar with you until it's healed!"

"Newsflash kid, I wont let you spar with me until it's healed." Yuki let out a loud huff.

"That's not fair." She was giving him her most deadly glare, one that would have made Trish proud. Dante ran his hand through his hair, a habit of his when he was trying to think.

"I know," he snapped his fingers, "let's go get ice cream. That would cheer you up right?" The guilt was thick on his face. Trish was never going to let him live this down. To his relief Yuki's eyes brightened a little, she may have wanted to stay mad at her father, but a common love of strawberry sundaes was always destined to solve their quarrels.

"Fine," she said lightly, "but I get to ride on your shoulders there AND back." She rose from the couch to retrieve her hoodie, putting a bit of a limp in her walk for her fathers benefit. It worked, of course.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Dante was sitting across from his daughter at the ice cream parlor, the very one she had come to when she got lost two years ago. She was already through one strawberry sundae and was making good time on her second. Dante played with his ice cream absentmindedly, his thoughts were elsewhere.

Yuki had brought up a good point earlier, why didn't she show any signs of her demon side? She was more demon than himself, so why? The thoughts had been bothering him more and more lately. When she was younger he had just been grateful that Yuki hadn't been born with horns and a tail, but now it was troubling.

"Hey daddy!" Dante snapped back into focus.

"What babe?"

"Are you gonna finish that?" Dante smirked and pushed his half-eaten ice cream towards his daughter. She looked at it suspiciously. "What's wrong?"

Dante was surprised, she sounded just like her mother, "nothing, why." It was the same answer he would have given Trish too.

"Last time I tried to take ice cream from you I thought you were gonna bite me," she pointed to the melting ice cream between them now, "so why aren't you eating it."

"You're too observant for your own good Yuki, just eat the damn ice cream," he grumbled, suddenly sullen. He didn't need two women looking over his shoulder. Yuki just shrugged and dug into her now third sundae. Dante didn't speak for the rest of the outing, still honoring his promise to give her a piggy-back ride however. They arrived back at the Devil May Cry and Yuki was sick of her father's mood.

"Let's clean your guns! Or we could talk about fighting theory, or maybe you could show me how to…"

"Yuki," Dante said sharply, "shouldn't you take a nap?"

Yuki was stunned, but only for a minute. "Fine," she said stiffly, walking up the stairs, "be an ass." and she disappeared into one of the upper rooms.

The name stung more than it should have. She had never called him that before.

"I'll make it up to her later," he mumbled to himself, sitting down behind his desk and propping his feet up. Right now he needed to figure this problem out. He thought it over for some time, thinking of who he could talk to, who would give him information. He was so deep in thought that he didn't hear the upstairs window slide open, or the footsteps that crept across the upper room. In fact he heard nothing until his daughter screamed…

(I know I'm evil! You will LOVE the next chapter. Also, forgive me for my sluggish posts, end of school and all. I really appreciate all of the comments I get, it lets me know what you guys like about this story so I can keep it going in the right direction, thanks a bunch!)


	6. Chapter 6

Six

Dante grabbed Ivory and bounded up the stairs, her threw the door open and was staring down an old enemy. It was the same man from two years before, the one that had nearly grabbed Yuki in that alley-way. Dante didn't know his name and he didn't care, because right now he was holding a knife to his baby's throat.

"Get away from her," his words came out as a feral snarl.

"I don't think so," came the reply. "And the name that you're looking for is Sid, though I'm sure I've told it to you many times before."

"I'll try and remember that, so next time when my wife is here and asks who's dick is hanging on the wall I can give her a name." Dante's eyes never left Yuki. She didn't look scared, she didn't look angry or confused or anything, she just looked absent, like her conscious self had checked out and Dante was afraid that she had already gone into shock.

Sid was shaking his head, his expression amused. At least Dante thought it was amused, it was hard to tell because of the distorted features. "Now, now, talk like that will only get your cute little spawn killed." Sid shook Yuki fiercely, pressing the blade so close to her throat that a tiny bead of blood trickled down her neck. Dante was enraged, but what could he do, the little prick was keeping his head right behind Yuki's so shooting him was out of the question.

Dante slid closer to the pair, moving slowly and judging Sid's reaction. Apparently his chameleon-like eyes didn't judge depth very well because Dante had covered half of the distance between them before Sid noticed.

"Stop moving!" He ordered, and sliced the blade against Yuki's cheek, leaving a long, bloody streak down her face. "Or do you not value this little human's life?"

Human, the word stuck out in Dante's mind. He had always known that she was more fragile than himself, but she had never seemed so mortal as she did right now. The situation was getting dire, Sid had yet to announce any demands or intentions, which led Dante to believe that he had meant to kill her and didn't expect this snag in his plan. Trish would be here soon, she had promised to bring diner, so all Dante needed to do was stall, in this current situation an electrical current would be much more useful than a bullet.

"So what do you want, ugly? This stalemate's been fun and all, but it might be helpful to know some demands." Dante allowed his tone to become mocking, hoping Sid would take the bait.

"Demands?" Sid was quiet a moment. "You have something I want."

So that was it, he hadn't intended for anyone to be here in the first place.

"I have things a lot of people want, dashing good looks, a charming personality, a libido that doesn't quit," Dante shrugged, "but I can't really hand any of that over, sorry."

"It's a book."

Dante snorted, "do I look like I read?" He was still looking at Yuki, if it weren't for the steady rise and fall of her chest he wouldn't have been sure that she was even alive. "Listen, put down the kid and you can have every paperback in the place."

It was Sid's turn to snort, "do I look stupid?"

"Well mostly you look deformed, but stupid's pretty high up there."

"I'll let her go as soon as you fetch the book and leave the room so I can be sure that I can get away."

"Not a chance," Dante's tone was deadly once more.

"Stop." The voice surprised the two men, despite her being his shield Sid had all but forgotten the little girl was still conscious.

"Yuki," Dante's voice was wary, she didn't look like herself. Her eyes were different, darker.

Yuki ignored him, she instead turned to face her captor.

"You will let me go now." Her voice was a deadly calm, and was softer than normal. Sid's hands dropped to his side. "Step away from me," she ordered quietly. He obeyed. "Stop breathing." Dante wasn't sure whether Sid had followed that command, until he was flailing on the ground, clawing at his throat. Yuki's face cracked into a sadistic grin, she began to giggle.

"YUKI!" Dante shouted. She was scaring the hell out of him.

Her head snapped up, eyes now clear. Sid was able to breath at that moment and he wasted no time in getting the hell out of there. Dante cursed and let fly a round of bullets but Sid was gone.

"Fuck!" Dante yelled, slamming his fist through the paper-thin wall.

"Daddy," Yuki's voice was still quiet, but not as other-worldly. Dante rushed over to her and hastily wiped some of the dried blood off her cheek. He was rough in his hurry, but he made sure that his daughter was ok. He was kneeling a little less than an arms length in front of her and currently inspecting he throat. When he was satisfied that she had no life threatening injuries he looked into her eyes, now clear and slightly frightened. Without warning he yanked her into his chest and hugged her fiercely.

"Jesus Christ Yuki," relief was prominent in his voice, "you picked a hell of a time to be a demon." She allowed herself a tiny smile.

"It was cool huh."

Dante choked out a laugh. They stayed like that for a minute, until they heard Trish's car pull up. Dante picked his daughter up and carried her down stairs, adverse to the idea of letting her go.

"Daddy you're sweaty," Yuki complained. Dante smiled, relief was practically curling off of him like smoke.

The bell on the front door rang as Trish walked in carrying a bag of take-out.

"Sorry I'm late guys, I got caught up with a client and," she just noticed the state of her husband and daughter. The take-out bag dropped to the floor. "What happened?"

(Got chapter 6 in about 10 minutes after chapter 5, I just hate to make you guys wait ; ) Really hope you all liked it!)


	7. Chapter 7

Dante and Yuki were sitting on the couch, staring each other straight in the eyes

Dante and Yuki were sitting on the couch, staring each other straight in the eyes. Yuki focused as hard as she could and spoke,

"Give me a cookie."

Dante's answer was swift, "no."

"Give me a cookie."

"No."

"GIVE ME A COOKIE!"

"No."

Her voice became a deadly calm and she instructed softly, "give me a cookie."

Dante mocked he tone, "no." He wore a wide smile.

"Damn it!"

"Language!" Trish yelled from the kitchen, she was determined to wean Yuki off of curse words, she was tired of getting phone calls from the school.

Yuki ignored her. "Why won't it work anymore?" Dante considered it for a moment.

"Maybe it doesn't work on strong demons."

Yuki smiled wickedly, "so then why doesn't it work on you?" Dante scowled at her, then shoved her swiftly off the couch. Yuki rolled and sprung at Dante, and just like that the two of them were wrestling.

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Yuki was irritated, she was sitting outside yet another dressing room waiting for her mother to be finished. Trish had insisted that Yuki needed some new clothes and despite her protests she now owned two bags filled with dresses, skirts and other clothing items she would never wear.

"What do you think of this one?" Trish modeled a dark green top.

"I think it's ugly." This had been the response for the last three stores so Trish really paid her no mind. She had dragged her daughter along in the hopes that they might bond a bit, but it seemed that Yuki was too busy idealizing her father to give her mother any time.

"Don't you like the pattern?" she prompted hopefully.

"No, it's girly," Yuki responded quickly, she hated girly things. Girly girls couldn't fight demons, not like her dad anyway.

Trish sighed, deflated. "Ok Yuki, you win, we'll just go home."

"Finally!" Yuki hopped off her chair and began to gather her things while her mother went back into the dressing room to change into her original clothes.

A shrill scream from the front of the store halted Yuki's movements.

"What is that!!"

"What's going on!"

"Oh god!!"

Everyone had begun screaming as a massive form crawled through the store's now-broken front window. It had piercing bright-red eyes and was moving through the store on four of it's six legs.

Yuki was frozen in place as the monster advanced towards her. She felt a sudden pulling in the pit of her stomach.

BANG

The smoking muzzle of a gun lowered slowly from behind the dressing room curtain.

"You know," her mother's voice broke the silence that had followed the gun shot, "I'm actually happy that you're here." The demon acknowledged her with a ferocious snarl. "I needed to work off some aggression."

Trish pulled another gun from her coat and leveled two barrels at the demon. A sudden barrage of bullets fell on the demon, who dodged most of them with surprising speed. The demon advanced again, this time on Yuki, but Trish was a step ahead. Without flinching towards her daughter, Trish raised her hands and brought down a lethal bolt of lightning onto the demon, killing it instantly. The carcass slid to a stop not even a foot away from her daughter.

The pulling sensation had stopped, Yuki was in awe of her mother's strength. Trish looked at her baby, worried that she may have scarred her for life.

"Yuki," she called while quickly moving to kneel in front of her and wipe away stray hairs from her face.

"Wow." Trish looked into Yuki's eyes with concern, "I didn't know you could do that! That was so cool! You just killed a demon!" Yuki was ecstatic, and Trish was relived. "You didn't even have to use bullets! Does daddy know?"

Trish laughed, "of course he knows, we even fight demons together sometimes."

Yuki looked thoughtful for a moment, then smiled widely, "can we keep shopping, I wanna dress like you!"

Trish was surprised for a second, "um, sure." She took Yuki's hand and together they left the shop, right before the police arrived.

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	8. Chapter 8

To say that the day started out average enough would be an insult, because all the tragic days begin normally

To say that the day started out average enough would be an insult, because all the tragic days begin normally. They all start with your basic routine, your favorite cereal and your car making that whirring noise that you meant to get checked out. That's all part of the tragedy, being torn from your normalcy and thrown into a nightmare.

This day was normal. It was normal when Trish was trying to get Yuki up for school, it was normal when Yuki all but welded herself to the mattress, it was even normal when she threw her cereal bowl at Dante. Yup, it was going to be a normal day.

Right?

Yuki had returned from school and was systematically cleaning her pistol on the floor of the Devil May Cry. Dante was in his classic position, feet up, head back, and Trish was leafing through a magazine on the couch, waiting until at least 6:30 before she would suggest Chinese food. Everyone was relaxed, this was the routine. Dante was considering grappling with Yuki later, or maybe they would do shot practice. Yuki was thinking about the shopping trip she was going on with her mother tomorrow.

The phone rang.

"Devil May Cry," Dante answered, already deciding that he wasn't going to take the job.

"Hello Dante." The voice stopped Dante cold.

"Sid," he snarled into the receiver.

"You remembered! I am truly honored."

"I try and remember the names of the guys on my shit list; you're the only one still alive."

"Such big words for a man who wasn't able to kill such a weak demon as myself."

"Allow me to fix that problem," Dante growled in a low voice, Trish and Yuki were staring at him.

"Absolutely, just come outside." Dante was temporarily stunned, but her threw the phone back onto its hook and stalked across his shop until he reached the door. Yuki was close on his heels.

Dante looked at her, "Stay," he ordered fiercely. She reluctantly obeyed. Once outside Dante looked around. It took him only a moment to spot Sid standing on top of the building opposite the Devil May Cry. "I thought you were going to give me a chance to kill you," Dante shouted in his direction, "so what's with the hiding?"

"Oh, not hiding Dante, not hiding at all. I'm simply waiting, and watching."

"Waiting for what?" Dante asked suspiciously.

"That," Sid pointed to the sunset.

"You're watching the sunset, how touching," Dante leveled his pistols at Sid, "I'll consider it your last request."

"No, no. Not yet Dante." Sid was practically giggling.

"Why the hell not?" The situation was becoming more peculiar by the moment.

"Because HE must be here first."

"Who?" The ground around Dante rumbled, it was then that Dante noticed the symbols scribbled across the streets and under his feet. "Who is coming Sid!" Dante yelled with urgency. His only response was Sid's gleeful laughing.

Parts of the street started to crack and fall into the sewer beneath. The air became hot and thick with the potent feel of evil. This was bad. Really, really bad. His thoughts darted to his wife and child. He needed to get them to safety before whatever this was manifested.

"Trish!" Dante yelled behind himself, "grab Yuki and RUN!" He wasn't sure if she got the message because at that moment a wide portal opened up in the street in front of him. Hundreds of demons spilled out and Dante wasted no more time on Sid. He began systematically killing the demons in a barrage of bullets, dozens of them were felled just outside of the portal, but there were too many. The demons began running through the streets, Dante could hear the screams of people in the surrounding buildings. The creatures were killing, not hunting but just killing as many people as they could.

The situation was dire, but Dante knew that it was going to get worse. Sid had said HE, as in one. Meaning the big guy hadn't even shown up yet. There was no time to dwell on this realization however, the demons that were present were falling on Dante, their massive numbers beginning to take a toll on his defense. There were too many, he was being overwhelmed

The earth gave a great shudder once more, the sky darkening to the color of ink. This was it. HE was coming. A great wind began to circulate the portal, so powerful that it sucked some of the demons back in. A shill screech sounded from deep inside the mystical door and immediately the demons began to fall back. No, they weren't just backing up, they were fleeing. Not good.

Dante turned to face what would soon be his opponent. Still some persistent demons doubled back, determined to get a piece of the devil hunter before the head honcho showed up. Between the wind and the screeching Dante didn't even notice their approach. They were in striking range before Dante's sixth sense went off, warning him of a danger even closer then he thought. He spun around, seeing that the demons had come too close for him to fight them all back without sustaining some injury. The demons were ready to spring when great bolts of lightning killed them where they stood. Dante looked over to his wife, a new terror rising in his chest.

"Where's Yuki!" he yelled over the howl of the wind.

"Safe!" was Trish's only response before she threw herself at other demons making their way through the alley ways and buildings. He couldn't worry about Yuki right now, if Trish said she was safe then she was safe. He needed to concentrate on what was beginning to pull itself out of hell. Ferocious claws gripped either side of the portal and a great winged body was hoisted into the human realm. The devil was larger than Dante had thought it would be, and he could see an intelligence in the beasts eyes.

"Dante."

He was taken back when the demon spoke his name.

"Son of Sparda," it continued, "it will be my great pleasure to kill you and your spawn!" With that the beast attacked.

Trish could only watch as Dante withstood a barrage of attacks, each time only narrowly dodging. The demon moved more quickly than one would think something of that size could move. Its massive tail curved and swept under Dante while claws were aimed straight at his heart. Dante moved, wove and ducked but still a claw found him and pierced through his shoulder. He didn't miss a beat, calling Rebellion to his side, Dante began to slash at the demon. Soon the two of them were a blur of motion, each one giving and receiving harsh blows.

Trish couldn't watch Dante for long, she was preoccupied with the other demons. After recognizing her as a threat, they gathered to attack her in force. She was doing well enough against them, not even getting a scratch. She just prayed that Yuki stayed in the locker.

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Back inside the Devil may cry Yuki was sobbing. She was terrified, but her mother had told her that she would be safe. This locker had special wards to protect it against demons, though Yuki didn't know why. She fumbled around for the flashlight her mother had given her and flipped it on. The locker was big enough for her to sit up in, and long enough that she could stretch out and still have room. There were some folders with papers in them, a couple old statue looking things, but nothing that looked important enough to warrant such a secure location.

Yuki swept the flashlight back and forth until she noticed something catch the light. She reached out to the object and felt a chain, reaching further she felt soft velvet covering what ever was on the chain. Chains, she corrected herself, there were two. Setting the flashlight at an angle so she could still see, Yuki unwrapped the velvet and gasped. Hanging on the end of each chain was a blood red stone set in the middle of what she could only assume was gold. The necklaces were pretty and she could feel that there was something carved on the two of them, but the light was too dim to read by. Another crash caught her attention and the locker rattled, knocking the flashlight over and pointing it to one of her old stuffed rabbits. She grabbed for it, grateful that there was something familiar and comforting with her.

Another crash, again the locker shook, this time more violently than before. Yuki knew that her parents were out there fighting, she had seen the demons crawling out of the glowing circle in the street and she was sick with worry for them. She leaned back into the locker wall and sat up again quickly, something hard had dug into her. Reaching back, Yuki pulled out her little pistol. She suddenly remembered tucking it in the back of her pants when Trish had grabbed her.

_That's right_, Yuki thought, _I know how to fight, I know haw to shoot a gun, so why shouldn't I be out there helping my family? _Her mind was made up. Yuki grabbed for the flashlight again and pointed it up towards the door, she was looking for the safety release, the kind all lockers had so people didn't end up getting stuck in them. There! The release was in the center of the door, right where she thought it would be. Yuki reached up and pulled the latch, she heard the lock click open and pushed on the door. It was heavier than she thought it would be, but after pushing up with her back she eventually got it open. Slowly, cautiously, Yuki stepped out of the locker, looking around and holding her gun out in front of her. The room was clear, and so was the front room, but the horrifying scene was clear through the windows. Yuki saw her father take a hard hit and go spinning onto the ground, blood leaking from his mouth. Yuki gave no thought to the enormous demon standing just feet from his form, her eyes were locked on Dante, she tore out of the Devil May screaming, "Daddy!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dante was gaining the upper hand and both he and the demon knew it. Though both were bleeding from various wounds, the demon was getting slower and Dante was getting faster. In a desperate attempt the demon lashed out, exposing his side and belly. Dante moved in to take the hit and used the momentum to slice a clean line up the side of the demon. Dante fell to the ground panting, knowing that he had mortally wounded the demon. A small smirk was forming on his lips, until he looked up. Trish was being overwhelmed by the numerous demons and he saw one slide up behind her, its dagger-like arm raised high. He was going to shoot it, but in the same instance he made that decision a small figure came running towards him.

"Daddy!" Yuki cried. There was a demon behind her, just seconds away from pushing her through the portal and into hell.

Who would he save, Yuki or Trish? He didn't have time to save both. In that perilous second Dante froze. Regaining his senses, Dante acted, but it was too late. He saw Trish get sliced in half and Yuki fall into hell. A loud yell erupted from his throat, and at the same time the great demon seized its chance and retreated back into the portal. Dante saw it and dashed over, ready to throw himself into hell after his daughter. Once the demon had gone back through, however, the portal snapped shut, leaving nothing behind. Dante yelled again and beat the ground.

"Yuki!" he screamed and beat the ground harder, "Yuki!"

The world had become quiet, the sky was now clear and Dante looked around, remembering that there were still demons to fight. Except there weren't. Everything was gone, every demon had vanished when the portal had closed. His eyes continued to scan his surroundings, looking for what he prayed he had not seen. There was Trish, in the alley way. Dante rose, not in one of his usually graceful movement, but in a wobbly, numb kind of way. Slowly he trudged to his wife, as he got closer her features became clearer. Her lifeless eyes were staring out blankly, and it was clear that she had been sliced at an angle. Dante's legs gave out and he crashed heavily onto the ground. Tears were streaming down his face before he had even choked out a sob. He gave a heart wrenching scream, his agony and shock bubbling over.

There, beside the corpse of his wife, Dante cried.

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I'm sorry it took me so long to update, I've been avoiding this chapter and I'm sure you all understand why. I'm going to update the next chapter quickly so that I don't leave you all depressed. Please review!


	9. Chapter 9

Dante woke slowly, there was a dull ache in his chest

Dante woke slowly, there was a dull ache in his chest. He leaned over in the bed and felt the other side, it was cold, just like he expected it would be. His hand went to his cheek, there were tears running down them, he had been crying in his sleep. This couldn't be happening. Dante gave a hoarse shout of anguish.

"Dante, what's wrong?" Trish came running out of the bathroom. Dante stared at her, his mouth hanging open, "Dante?" she asked again, her voice laced with concern. Dante sprung from the bed and in two long steps he covered the distance between himself and his wife. He locked Trish in a desperate embrace, breathing in her scent, feeling her deceptively frail form under his arms.

"Trish," he choked, his body was trembling, "oh god!" He tightened the embrace. Trish had no idea what was going on.

"Is this because I came home late?" she questioned. Dante buried his face in her hair and just shook his head. "Then what?"

"I just had to face a reality where you and Yuki were taken from me, and it was entirely my fault." His voice was bleak, as if just explaining what he thought had happened would somehow damn his family. Trish rubbed soothing circles on his back. After a few minutes she pulled away, Dante wouldn't allow it.

"No," he said simply, he didn't ever want to let go.

"Dante, your body is shaking, maybe you should sit down." Dante pulled back fractionally and swept his wife into his arms.

"Fine," he replied softly, "but not without you." He walked smoothly to the bed, still holding Trish tightly to his chest. Once seated on the bed Dante situated Trish on his lap, one arm wrapped protectively around her waist, the other stroking her hair and face.

"Dante tell me what happened." Dante sighed, his body calming down some as he inhaled his wife's sent. He didn't want to tell her, didn't want her to know that he was weak, even if it was only in his dreams.

"Not tonight," he breathed. Trish relented; he obviously wasn't going to talk about it anytime soon.

"Ok." There was silence between them. Eventually Trish pulled her body off of Dante's lap, his arms tightened in protest. "It's ok," she soothed, "I just want to lay down." Trish lowered herself on the bed, knowing that Dante wasn't going to remove his arm from her waist she lay back against him, using his arm for a pillow.

Dante watched as Trish fell asleep, still running his hand up and down her side. Her breathing became deep and even and Dante lifted himself from the bed. He gently covered her with a blanket and then left the room.

While walking down the hall Dante felt his breath stop. What if it wasn't all a dream? He slowly opened the door to Yuki's room, bracing himself for the worst. At first he couldn't tell if she was safely in her bed because of the stuffed animals she surrounded herself with so he walked in. Quietly he crossed the distance to her bed and looked down. There she was, sleeping soundly, safely. Dante breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was ok, but there was still a feeling he couldn't shake. Yuki stirred.

"Daddy?"

"Hey kid," Dante was glad to hear her voice.

"What are you doing," Yuki stifled a yawn.

"Just checking on you," he reached down to stroke her hair. "Go back to sleep."

Yuki obliged, it was late, or early depending on how you look at it. Dante left her, looking back once more when he reached the door. He walked back down the hallway, there was still that feeling, some deep seeded fear he just couldn't shake, and as muck as he wanted to deny it, he knew exactly what was bothering him.

He had frozen. In the dream, he had frozen. The weakness had cost him both of the people he loved. What if it had all really happened? Would he really have frozen. Of course he would have, there was no possible way to choose between his wife and his daughter, no way to decide which one would live and which one would die. This troubled Dante more than anything.

"Dante?" Trish was leaning out of the bedroom door, "come back to bed." Dante obliged, his thoughts still swimming with his dilemma.

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I feel as if I should explain my previous chapter. It was important to add some depth to my story and my characters, something needed to happen that would convey how deeply Dante loved his family and that was the best way to do it without making Dante say something sappy and entirely out of character.


	10. Chapter 10

"So!" Dante tilted his magazine so he could look his interruption in the face, "what are we doing today daddy?"

"_You_ are doing homework," Dante pointed to the mass of papers piled on the floor of the apartment, "that's the reason we're staying home today, so you can turn in all of the work you've been putting off."

"Maybe I won't. I mean, who wants to get into fifth grade anyway?" Yuki looked at the papers with distain.

"My daughter will not be a fourth grade drop out," Dante returned his attention to the magazine. He tried to read one of the many cologne adds to seem engrossed in the literature but Yuki didn't budge. "Seriously kid, get to work."

"But I don't want to!" Yuki whined, elongating each word.

Dante narrowed his eyes in annoyance, "tough shit."

"Hmph." She returned her attention to her work. There was a stack of worksheets, three prompts for 1 paragraph essays and lists of math problems she had to do in order to get a 4.0, because of course Trish would accept nothing less. Yuki had been tested earlier this year and her intelligence was off the charts, so Trish had made it clear that there would be no excuses for anything less than an A- in all subjects.

Dante returned his attention to his magazine. After about 15 minutes he began to nod off until the sound of paper ripping jarred him awake. He looked down at his daughter to find that she was methodically tearing up her worksheets.

"Yuki! What the hell do you think you're doing!"

"Solving the problems." She stated mater-of-factly.

"Damn it Yuki!" Dante yelled, exasperated. He riffled through the desk until he found a roll of tape. "Put it back together." He tossed her the tape.

She caught it, looked at it, then set it aside. "No."

Dante was surprised at her answer. She had never pushed his authority this far before. In fact, she was usually pretty good about listening to him, at least when he was serious.

"Yuki. I'm not going to ask again." He leveled his gaze on her.

She scoffed, "you just did."

"I swear to god Yuki if you don't knock off the attitude I'm going to put you in time out like you were five." Dante really didn't know what else to do. There was no way in hell he was going to hit his daughter and she was already grounded for putting her work off for this long. Besides, he was reluctant to take away things she liked for something as stupid as this.

Yuki took the threat as a personal insult. "And what exactly do you think that would accomplish?"

"Hopefully it will remind you to listen to your father. Now are you going to do your work or not?" This was a dilemma. Yuki really didn't want to be put in the corner, that would be mortifying. But in her eyes, this was a challenge, and she had never been one to back down or submit.

"No." She narrowed her eyes and waited. The ball was in Dante's court.

"Fine." Dante stood, grabbed Yuki and walked to the dining room. He positioned a chair to face a corner and set her in it. The entire time Yuki didn't utter a word, but Dante could tell she was upset by the fierce blush on her face. "9 minutes," he said and left her to stew. He returned to the living room and looked around him. There was worksheet confetti everywhere. He sighed. Today should have been a breeze, he was going to relax at home until Yuki finished her work and then he had a surprise for her. That gave him an idea. Nine minutes later Dante spun Yuki's chair around and knelt down in front of her.

"Ok," Dante began, "I have a deal for you. If you tape your work back together and finish everything, I have a surprise for you."

Yuki deliberated a moment. She could accept this deal and save face, because technically she didn't back down. "Deal," she shook her father's hand enthusiastically and hopped off the chair.

It took less than an hour for Yuki to finish all of her work. She threw her pencil down with force. "Done!" She got up and ran to Dante, almost jumping with excitement. "What's the surprise?"

Dante motioned towards Yuki's bedroom, "go put on your shoes and a jacket." Yuki just about jumped out of her skin she was so excited to be getting out of the house (she had been grounded for over two weeks so far and had another one to go). She got ready in record time and was in front of Dante once more. Dante stood with a grunt, crap he was getting old, and followed Yuki out the apartment.

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Yeah, when I eventually get to writing the next chapter, it's going to be about Yuki playing paintball and OWNING the guys twice her age. Sorry this chapter took so long but I've really lost inspiration and I'm not entirely sire where I'm going to take this. Thanks so much for reading and please review!!!!!!

3 familiar-abyss


	11. Chapter 11

So, it's been a while guys. Sorry about that. I have excuses, they really don't matter. I just want everyone to know that I greatly appreciate all of the comments and I am really sorry that it's been so long since I last posted. I do promise to finish this particular side story by the end of October and do my damndest to update more often. Thank you.

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The sun was setting over the ocean as a red convertible sped down the road. Dante was wearing a bemused grin, Yuki was sulking with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"It doesn't say anything about it on the rule board," she said sulkily.

"I don't think they anticipated a little girl pistol whipping a grown man," Dante replied, his amusement evident in his voice.

"I ran out of paintballs," she shrugged. Dante laughed out loud.

It had been a really fun day after Yuki finished her homework. He would never tell his daughter, but Dante hated it when Yuki was grounded just as much as Yuki did. In fact, the only way he convinced Trish to let him take her out for the day was if he guaranteed that her work would be done and the activity was educational. Dante decided that paintball fit the bill. To be fair, his idea of educational may have differed from Trish's.

"It's still not fair. If it doesn't say anything in the rules how can they ban me for life?"

Dante shrugged.

"It's their business, they can do whatever they want."

Yuki slumped down in the seat. She had loved being able to shoot moving targets. Trying to anticipate where they were going to move, staying one step ahead and shooting with accuracy at the same time. Practicing with her father just wasn't the same. He was knowledgeable, which meant he would always know what she was thinking before she had a chance to act. Yuki knew that every time she landed a punch or kick it was only because Dante let her. But these people? Amateurs. Picking them off had been cake. Twenty five minutes in the first round she had already got everybody out. The second round took her only twenty. It was in the third round that she ran into a snag.

She was determined to beat her time and at thirteen minutes she had shot all but one of the players. Actually, she had shot him. He was the first person she went after because he had been boasting about what a great shot he was. The cheating bastard had been wearing a hoodie at the time and when she crossed paths with him again he wasn't. Somehow he had managed to avoid her until he was the only one left. Yuki was upset because technically she should have had her victory in 13 minutes, 9 seconds, but this guy was ruining her time. After the clock hit 19 minutes she got really angry. She still had no idea where he was and she wasn't going to beat her previous time. It was at that moment that the boy decided to ambush her from where he had been crouching. She heard him running up from behind and without the slightest hesitation she turned and chucked the gun at him. Yuki had a really great throw and even better aim. The guy was out before he hit the ground.

"Besides," Dante continued, "I'm sure that a new rule will be added to the board by tomorrow. You should be proud."

The corners of Yuki's lips twitched up in a brief smile.

"And there's no way he can deny that he got knocked out by a little girl," she responded, brightening. Dante reached over and ruffled her hair, an affectionate gesture Yuki had learned to appreciate.

"He was out cold," Dante agreed, a pleased smile planted boldly on his face. Sure, Trish was going to give him hell for this, but he couldn't help but be proud of Yuki. The guy got what he deserved in Dante's mind.

They pulled up to the front of the Devil May Cry and Yuki made to get out of the car. Dante grabbed her shoulder, pushing her back in the seat abruptly. She turned to him questioningly.

Dante's face no longer held any trace of humor. He was looking steadily into his shop with a dark expression. Yuki followed his gaze to the front of the Devil May Cry. The door was swinging limply from one hinge, one window had a crude picture spray-painted on it and it was clear that whoever had done this was still inside. The car was silent for a long minute. Finally Dante reached over his daughter to grab her seatbelt, clicked it into place and started the car.

"What are you doing?" Yuki asked indignantly.

"Taking you home."

Dante shifted into drive and pulled back onto the road. Yuki squirmed around in her seat to see someone fleeing from the Devil May Cry.

"You're letting him get away! Go after him!"

"I will not and sit down." Dante's voice was hard with the slightest tinge of anger. He had learned a lot of self control since Yuki had been born, and it was taking every ounce of it for him not to go after that guy.

"Come on, it's just one guy. You could get him in no time!" Yuki could not for the life of her figure out why her father was driving away instead of kicking that guy's ass.

"I'm not leaving you in the car." Dante's voice was gruff. He knew he was making the right decision, the safe decision, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

"I could help you. He didn't look so big." Yuki looked at her dad hopefully. Dante didn't waiver.

"He was at least twice as tall as you and probably more than four times your weight." Dante responded rationally.

"So?"

Dante looked over at Yuki and saw that she genuinely thought that she was a match for the mystery vandal.

"So he would crush you." It was getting harder for him to keep the anger from his voice.

Yuki looked hurt. Dante had never told her that she wouldn't be able to do something, at least not flat out like this.

"Size doesn't matter," she retorted stubbornly, remembering when he was teaching her how to use an opponent's weight against them.

"As long as the little one knows what they're doing."

That stung worse.

"I know what I'm doing." Yuki growled at her father.

"You know as much as a 9-year-old." Dante growled back.

Tears of anger and hurt pricked at Yuki's eyes. She thought she had done well today, but looking back on the day everything seemed childish now.

"Well maybe that's because I have a crappy teacher." She was upset and just wanted to say something that would hurt Dante as much as he had hurt her.

Unfortunately, Dante was dealing with the anger of having his shop vandalized, the frustration of not being able to do anything about it and the horror of imagining Yuki being so cocky that she thought she could beat up a man who roughly equaled four of her. That compounded onto Yuki's comment made him lash out more childishly than his daughter.

"If I'm holding you back so much there's really no reason for us to continue your training."

Dante pulled into the parking garage and shut off the car. Yuki was out and slamming the door shut before the key was out of the ignition. With his long stride Dante caught up to her with little effort. He pushed the button for the elevator and they waited silently.

They were at the point of the fight where a simple apology from either of them would end it. He would realize that he had been an ass and she would accept that maybe she had a few more things to learn about combat. They both would have been better off because of the argument and no one would have hard feelings. Naturally, neither of them spoke. They were too much alike.

The elevator was taking its sweet time coming down and Yuki was finally fed up with just standing there.

"I'm taking the stairs," she announced, and turned away. Dante snagged the scruff of her jacket and dragged her back.

"No, you're not."

Even under normal circumstances Dante wouldn't have let her go into the stairwell alone, but he wouldn't have been such a jerk about it. Then again, under normal circumstances she wouldn't have wanted too. As it was she was rapidly reaching her breaking point which meant she was either going to cry or hit him. She was in favor of the latter.

"Wouldn't want a scary maid to throw her feather duster at me," she said sullenly.

"Yes Yuki," Dante responded sarcastically, "I go to great lengths to ensure your safety against feathers. Now you know why you've never had a down quilt."

The elevator door opened and Dante led her in, still holding onto the jacket. Only when the doors were closed did he let go. The silent trend continued all the way to their floor, and Dante once again grabbed the jacket and led Yuki to the door. He let go when they were securely inside and he was sure Yuki wasn't going to do something stupid. She was glaring at him the whole time.

"Bet you're glad you were here to drag little 9-year-old me home. Then again, apparently it's not that much of a challenge." Yuki was just prodding for a reason to yell. This was the first time she had ever gotten into a fight of this caliber with her dad; she wasn't entirely sure what to do so yelling seemed like a good option.

"Yuki," he began, also wanting to yell, "just go to your room." By the grace of some ethereal being he kept that urge in check.

"Why? I haven't done anything wrong." She argued. Now she was just being stubborn.

"Because you're still grounded, now go." He was rapidly losing his patience with Yuki and even more rapidly losing control of himself.

Yuki looked him dead in the eye.

"I hate you." And she stalked off to her room.

Dante didn't breathe until he heard the loud slam of her door. There were too many things happening at once. Luckily Trish picked that moment to come home.

"Hey babe, I was thinking sushi tonight. I probably shouldn't try to cook again until we replace the pan I ruined." She turned to her husband and was startled by his expression. "Dante…?"

"I'm going out," he stated simply and brushed past Trish as he went out the door.

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Dante was moving swiftly down the streets, his target in his sights. He welcomed the thrill of the hunt and the rush at the promise of violence. The target was standing outside a bar entertaining a group of his friends. Dante grinned and strode towards the man with the bandaged nose.

"So I've already beat four of them back," he was saying, "and then this enormous guy throws a fist in my face. Sure, it hurt, but I couldn't let that distract me…GACK!"

His story was cut short by Dante's hand around his throat. In one swift motion Dante lifted him off his feet and pinned him to the wall.

"Don't mind me," Dante said casually, "I just need to have a little chat with your buddy."

The surrounding group of men was startled to say the least. It's not every day that an enormous white-haired man tosses around one of your friends as if he's a rag doll.

"H-hey," one of the drunker ones protested, "you, you need to let him go or we're going to kick your ass."

The men looked at each other uncertainly, not entirely sure if they would back the drunk one up if it came to blows. Luckily, Dante made the decision for them.

"I get it, he's your friend, you've got his back," Dante said in a very reasonable tone, then leveled Ebony at his face. "But if you don't want more holes in that head then nature intended you probably want to get the fuck out of here."

They all scattered, no one faster than the one who had challenged him. Dante smiled to himself briefly, holstered Ebony, and turned his icy gaze on the man still dangling from his hand. He lowered him enough so that his feet could touch the ground but did not relax his grip.

"What's your name?" Dante asked in an almost conversational tone.

"Keith," the man squeaked.

"Keith," Dante began, a thread of menace in his voice, "my shop was broken into earlier today. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"

Keith's eyes widened.

"Hey man," he choked, "why would you think I had any part in that?" He was gasping at Dante's tightening hand.

"That's a good question," Dante was toying with him and loving it. "Maybe because my kid broke your nose earlier today and you have a score to settle. Maybe because I saw someone with similar height and hair color running from my shop. Or maybe," he pulled something out of his long red coat and put it in Keith's line of sight, "maybe because I found your wallet lying on the floor."

The blood flushed from Keith's face. His bandaged nose had begun bleeding again and was rapidly soaking through the gauze.

"Please," he whimpered.

Dante raised an eyebrow.

"Please don't hurt me."

Dear god, the kid was actually starting to cry. Dante gave a disgusted scoff and released his grip. Keith crumpled onto the pavement. He looked up with wide eyes at Dante who was crouching down to loom over him.

"Here's what's going to happen," Dante no longer made any effort to veil the threat in his tone, "I'm going to walk away, and when I go to my shop tomorrow all of the damage will have magically disappeared. Get it?"

Keith was past the point of coherent speech so he just nodded meekly. Dante flashed a terrifying smile.

"Good boy."

With that he rose and left, feeling better than he had all night.

While on his way back home Dante stumbled upon a demon attempting to lure a young woman back to his nest. Dante followed the pair for a short while and just before the demon could make its move Dante engaged.

The demon was surprisingly difficult to defeat. By the time he dealt the killing blow, Dante's shirt was well torn and there was a stream of blood flowing down the side of his face from a rapidly healing wound.

After giving the human woman some sarcastic and slightly chiding remarks, and ensuring that she got back to the crowded sidewalk safely, Dante leaned back against the wall of a building to think. Now that he had had a chance to work off his frustrations he could recall the day's events through a filter of reason. He ran through his last conversation with Yuki in his head, the last words she had said specifically. Dante knew that kids told their parents that they hated them all the time, but not Yuki, and not to him. There was no doubt in his mind that he deserved her words, however. Sure, she had acted childishly, but she's 9, acting childishly is her job description.

Dante sighed and ran a gloved hand through his hair. He heaved himself off the wall with a grunt. Without any idea of how he was going to patch things up with his daughter, Dante headed home.

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It was quiet as Dante made his way down the hall to his apartment. He slipped inside and closed the door quietly behind him. Dante turned, and ducked just in time to avoid a coffee table that came whizzing by his head.

"What the hell?" He yelled at the mystery assailant.

"What did you do?" Trish was speaking in a low, dangerous voice.

"At least it wasn't a motorcycle this time," Dante muttered to himself, being reminded of the first time he had met his wife.

"Excuse me?" her voice didn't lose the deadly edge.

"Nothing," he answered evasively.

"Why did Yuki lock herself in her room?" Trish demanded.

Dante moved around Trish to the living room and sat heavily on the couch.

"I screwed up." Dante admitted bleakly.

"Well then don't just sit there," Trish's tone had become just a little softer, "go apologize."

"Parents are allowed to do that?" He hadn't even considered that option.

"Of course they are," Trish almost laughed. She walked over to sit next to her husband. "Go," she ordered.

Dante leaned towards her for a quick kiss then stood and went to Yuki's room. Trish watched as Dante knocked a couple times, tried to speak with her through the door and finally looked over helplessly.

"Just go in, Dante."

Trish was a little fed up with her daughter's stubbornness. Yuki hadn't even come out for dinner yet. She also didn't like seeing Dante this miserable, there was no way he did something bad enough to warrant this behavior from her.

Dante knocked once more and let himself in. Trish sat back in the couch deciding to wait for the two of them to come out with the whole thing put behind them.

She didn't have to wait long. Moments after entering Dante came back out and walked towards her, something clenched in his fist.

"That was quick. Would she not even talk to you?" Now Trish was more than just a little annoyed, "give me a minute with her, I'll…"

"Trish." Dante interrupted, holding out the note that was clutched in his hand, "Yuki's gone."


	12. Chapter 12

Yuki wasn't entirely sure how to look for what she wanted. The internet probably wouldn't have anything useful, a human wouldn't be any help and she didn't know any demons besides her parents. Wait. There was one she knew of. It had been a couple years since she had last seen him but at least trying to find him would be better than having no plan at all. How should she start? Both times they had met under completely random circumstances. Where could she look? Whatever she was going to do she needed to decide fast, it wouldn't be too long until one of her parents figured out that she was missing, if they hadn't already. No way in hell was she going home empty handed. She was going to prove to Dante that he was wrong. She WAS strong enough to take care of herself.

"Hey," she called brazenly to a man walking by. He stopped and looked at her. "You ever hear of a bar called Trudy's?" She was remembering a bar she had once heard her father talk about, a bar that demons frequented.

"And why would a little girl need to know about a bar like that?" the man asked.

Yuki seethed. The last thing she needed right now was another person calling her little.

"My mom works there," she lied smoothly, "and I don't remember where it is. She told me to come find her if my deadbeat dad showed up at the house."

The man faltered. What had previously been a patronizing look on his face now turned to pity.

"Oh, sorry. Yeah it's on Flatline Ave, just between Keeper's St and the St Lucy Cemetery. Do you need help getting there?" There was genuine concern in the man's voice.

Yuki considered taking him up on the offer. She had no idea where Flatline Ave was, but she did have a pretty good idea of where that cemetery was located and it was pretty damn far. In the end, though, she decided not to accept the ride. She was going to be in enough trouble as it was without adding 'got into a vehicle with a strange man' to the list.

After saying her thanks to the helpful man she made her way towards the bar. It was a good 30, 35 miles away. Luckily, she knew most of this city like the back of her hand and was good at reading a bus schedule. Just the same, it was well into the night before she saw the dimly lit sign of Trudy's.

Without hesitation Yuki marched straight into the bar and onto a barstool. She waited there for the bartender to acknowledge her or throw her out, she didn't know which to expect in a place like this. While waiting she could feel her senses stretching out instinctively. There were 7 demons in the bar right now. She didn't know how she knew that, but didn't doubt the knowledge either. None of them were particularly strong and she had her little pistol resting inside her jacket which gave her a very false sense of security. Despite her training and knowledge, if any one of those demons chose to pick a fight with her, she would lose. Age and experience count for a lot when it comes to combat.

"You waiting on someone in particular?" the bartender asked casually. Mel, his nametag said, though she suspected that wasn't really his name.

"More like trying to find them," she replied in the best imitation of her father's mannerisms that she could do. "Maybe you could help me out."

"Sure, if you can make it worth my while." Mel answered swiftly, no one did nothin' for free around here.

"Come on mister," Yuki grinned, "can't even help out a lost little girl?"

The bartender lost all sense of banter and stared daggers into Yuki's eyes.

"If I was you I wouldn't be advertising my situation around here. Lots of folks would just love to get their hands on a thing like you, lots of them are in this bar right now."

He picked up a glass, poured in a shot of bourbon and set it in front of Yuki.

"Tell you what," he said as he slid the glass towards her, "if you can down this without a grimace I'll tell you whatever I can about who you're trying to find, but in return you better get the hell out of here as soon as I do. Got it?"

Yuki didn't hesitate, she grabbed the glass, slammed the shot in one gulp and looked straight at Mel. She didn't flinch once, not even as the amber liquid burned its way down her throat and into her gut. Mel cracked a grin.

"Alright sweetheart," he said the endearment in a kind of sneer, "who are ya after?"

"His name is Sid. Heard of him?"

Mel snorted.

"I have, but only because he's been in here a couple of times looking for a little muscle. He's nothing, a weakling. What the hell do you want to find him for?"

"An explanation was not part of the deal," Yuki reminded him. She was smart enough not to give away anything she didn't have to.

"Alright, alright. I was just askin'." Mel picked up a new glass and started wiping at it with a grimy rag. "Last I heard he could be found at Fairview Inn, a little dive just on the other side of the cemetery. No guarantees he's still around though."

"Thanks."

"Now that I've held up my end of the bargain," Mel said, letting the finger he was pointing to the door finish his sentence.

"Yeah, I got it, get the hell out," Yuki murmured as she slipped off the stool and left.

The outside air was thick with moisture, almost cold, but Yuki was so pleased with herself she didn't feel it. She had gone into a dive bar and come out with the information she needed. If she had any doubts about her ability to take care of herself before, they were gone now.

What she didn't know, however, was that Dante frequented that bar. Whenever he needed information or was just looking to blow off some steam on a good fight he would come down. Mel didn't particularly like Dante, the weak rarely truly like the strong, but he could tell exactly who's kid Yuki was with just one look. Same as over half his bar's patrons. He scooted her out of there so damn quick because he didn't think he'd be able to stop one of them if they chose to have a go at her, and Dante the Devil Hunter was the last person he wanted as an enemy. So as Yuki was headed off to the Inn he sent her to, Mel was making a phone call to the Devil May Cry.

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Dante was too horrified to be angry. His baby was out there somewhere, on her own, with an over-inflated ego that he was pretty sure was partially his fault. He was walking swiftly down the streets around the apartment with absolutely no idea how long Yuki had been gone or which direction she had taken. Trish was on her way uptown as he headed in the opposite direction. Dante had been so worked up that he even phoned Lady to ask for her help in the search. She had been tactful enough not to make any cracks about how long it had been since they spoke and simply asked where they needed her. Shit. After this was over he was going to need to stay in touch better.

An annoying ringing from his jacket pocket snapped him out of his thoughts. He flipped the cell phone open with more force than necessary and held it to his ear.

"Dante," he answered gruffly.

It wasn't his usual phone greeting but it was the best he was going to do at a time like this. He listened for a split second before interrupting the caller.

"Listen Mel, I've got a bit of a situation on my end… What?... When?... Why the hell would you send her back out there!?" he yelled into the phone. He wouldn't let Mel know, but he was relieved to have at least a rough estimate of where his daughter was. "She is? Really?"

-"Yeah," came the voice from the other end, "it's a shit hotel, but I told 'em to keep her there until you came for her. She should be safe but I wouldn't press my luck if I were you."-

Dante snapped the phone shut without any further discussion and headed towards the Fairview Inn like a bat out of hell.

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Yuki was on cloud nine. She was walking the streets late at night entirely by herself, almost no chance of one of her parents showing up to save the day. On top of that, she was in the middle of conducting what she thought was a very successful investigation. Let's see some other 9-year-old do that!

She was nearly halfway through the cemetery when she felt something. There was a demon close by. Low level, by the feel of it, though she had very little experience using these new senses.

"My, my," came a raspy voice, "all alone again?"

Yuki smiled to herself and turned around.

"Sid," she said as a way of greeting, "I was just on my way to see you."

"Is that so?" There was real surprise in Sid's voice, try as he might to hide it.

"It is. Look, I really don't have too much time. I'm looking for a ritual."

"Well there are a lot of those," Sid responded evasively, waiting for Yuki to tip her hand.

"The kind that can summon a demon," she continued with narrowed eyes.

"There are a lot of those, too."

"Damn it! Can you help me or not?" Yuki had a natural talent for detective work, there was no doubt about that, but her patience wasn't yet what it needed to be.

"Please don't misunderstand young one, I would very much like to help you." It was only partly a lie. While he was still afraid of Yuki's bizarre power, he also wanted to make Dante suffer, and nothing would make him suffer more than having his only child devoured by the very demon she summoned. "I simply do not know how. Perhaps if you could give me the name of this demon?"

"Tiamatu," the word alone held great power.

It had taken her a long time to find the name. She had stumbled upon it once accidentally while reading some of the books back at the Devil May Cry.

Sid's eyes widened. This was better than he could have possibly imagined.

"The great sword of the abyss?" he needed to confirm that that was her intention.

"Do you know another Tiamatu?" Yuki shot back sarcastically.

"Of course not, I simply had to be sure." He needed a moment to compose himself. "He will not be an easy one. Last anyone heard of him was after he was freed by the one who wielded him, that was thousands of years ago."

"Can you do it or not?"

"No," Sid shook his head in mock sadness, "I do not poses the strength to summon such a powerful demon, but I can tell you how to."

Perhaps if she hadn't been elated at the news she would have suspected something about Sid's unwillingness to be present. Unfortunately she was far too eager to get this demon.

"I will tell you what you need and how to do it, that is, if you will tell me why this demon?" Sid was a very low level demon, he knew, other demons knew it. The only way he could get by in such a cutthroat world was with knowledge so he never passed up an opportunity to get information from somebody.

"So I can be strong," Yuki told him without hesitation. "My dad has all sorts of swords from the demons he's killed, if I get one too then there's no way he can tell me I'm weak."

Sid grinned a huge, frightening grin.

"Then we had better get started right away."


	13. Chapter 13

Dante had little difficulty finding the sleazy motel, there weren't that many around a cemetery. The chill in the night air barely registered as he pushed the ancient wooden door open. This night had been hell and he was more than ready for it to be over. When he found Yuki he was either going to crush her in a hug or just plain crush her. The jury was still out.

"Hey, did a kid come by?" Dante asked when he spotted a man behind the counter.

"You Dante?" the man eyed him suspiciously.

"You know any other guys this good looking?" Dante responded sarcastically.

The man looked less than amused, but then not everyone could appreciate Dante's brand of humor.

"Mel called about fifteen minutes ago to tell me she was on her way, you might have beaten her here," he shrugged as if it really didn't matter to him one way or the other.

There was no way he had missed her on his way to the Inn, he would have been able to feel her if she were that close, probably smell her too. Dante did a quick double check around the room to be sure this guy wasn't fucking around with him. He wasn't. If he was being completely honest with himself, Dante didn't truly believe that finding Yuki would be this easy. But seriously, when is he ever truly honest with himself?

"Fuck," Dante muttered, what little hope he had dissolved with the word. "If you see her," he began as he headed out the door. The guy nodded at his unfinished sentence.

Once outside Dante reached into his pocket for his cell phone to call Trish and relay everything that had happened so she and Lady could come help him search up here. He felt another pocket, then another, the two back pockets of his pants. Shit. It probably fell out when he was running down here. Dante didn't have time to try and contact them another way, for one he didn't know the numbers, but more importantly Yuki had been near here not fifteen minutes ago. If he was going to find her anytime soon he needed to keep looking now.

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Yuki was running swiftly away from the city trying her best to follow Sid. He was a fast one, she'd give him that. The two of them were headed to an old field where, centuries ago, a battle had taken place. It was best to summon Tiamatu in a place where blood had been shed, at least that's what Sid told her.

"How much further?" Yuki called ahead. Sid had also told her that this demon could only be summoned at night and dawn was maybe two hours away.

"Not much, not much," he cackled back. This was going more beautifully then he could have possibly imagined. Not only had he convinced the girl to summon the demon of the abyss on a night with almost no moon, she was going to do so in a place of mass murder. The great demon would feed on the anguish of so many lost lives and be all the stronger for it. Sid had to keep from giggling he was so pleased.

He led her further into the dark night. Nearly twenty minutes of running later Sid came to an abrupt halt. Despite her almost constant training with her father, Yuki was a little winded.

"There," Sid pointed to a great rock in the center of a clear field, a monument to the dead too numerous to name. "You must do the ritual there. All you need are a few choice words, a symbol drawn on the ground and a catalyst to bring the demon forth."

"Catalyst?" Yuki asked as she took the directions Sid had hastily scrawled on a dirty bar napkin. "What exactly would that be?"

"Nothing too complicated, a simple sacrifice would do the trick," Sid answered easily.

Yuki blanched, there was no way she was going to kill something that had absolutely no intent on hurting her.

"Well then I suppose using a bit of your own blood should work." It was the final piece to his hastily made plan, getting the girl to offer her blood to Tiamatu. Honestly simply drawing the symbols in the dirt and muttering the incantation in the old language would have been sufficient, but offering it her blood would bind it to her in a way that even if she miraculously managed to run it could track her half a world away. "After that he should appear fairly suddenly."

Yuki afforded him a brisk nod. She turned her back to him (not her first poor decision tonight and sadly not her last) and walked purposefully into the field. Sid watched her briefly.

"Good luck, filthy half-breed," he said to himself happily. Then, having no desire to be anywhere near when the great demon appeared, Sid ran back the way they came.

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Dante could think of nothing better to do than go back in the direction of the bar and hope that he crossed his daughters path. Luckily he knew her reckless streak well enough to know that she wouldn't waste time by going back out to the street where there were at least other pedestrians and streetlamps, no, Yuki thought herself immortal so naturally she would take the quickest route through the generally abandoned and entirely dark cemetery. Hand to god he was going to lock her in her room until she was old enough to have a mid-life crisis. Granted, that could be wistful thinking, for all he knew she was busily at work doing something fatal. How well he knew his daughter.

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The directions were much more complicated than Sid had let on, the only easy part was slicing her palm and dripping some blood into the dirt. Firstly the symbols that he had so easily scrawled were surprisingly intricate, and she kept accidentally scuffing some of the lines with her shoe and having to start over. Then by the time she thought that she had the marks right, she couldn't figure out how to pronounce the strange words. She made several fruitless attempts before she stopped briefly to look up at the sky with dismay. There was a slight lightening of the inky blue far on the horizon. She had a half hour, tops.

Yuki growled in frustration, a trait clearly picked up from her father, and worked at the words again. To her surprise, she could tell when she got a word right. There was a kind of power to each syllable, it was unnerving. Naturally this didn't stop her.

The sky had a chance to fade into a surreal navy color by the time she uttered the butchered words. While the pronunciation was anything but precise, it was close enough to catch Tiamatu's attention from the underworld. He roared triumphantly, unsheathed his claws and tore his way into the next dimension through the portal that had been created especially for him.

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Half way across the graveyard Dante stumbled upon his daughters trail and tore off in her direction. He was in full panic mode. Not only had he recognized his daughter's scent, he had caught Sid's scent too. The almost successfully repressed memories of that horrible dream years ago flashed in his mind. When Sid was involved, nothing good was going to happen.

Dante had covered little ground when he spotted the aforementioned demon scurrying his way. Too late Sid realized that he was no longer just running from danger, but also towards it. By the time he stopped and made to run off in a hopefully neutral direction Dante already had Ebony and Ivory leveled with both of his shoulders. The loud report of both guns hung in the near-morning air, followed swiftly by screams of anguish. With an inhuman speed that betrayed his demon heritage Dante had Sid by the throat and pressed him into the ground until he heard the satisfying crunch of the lesser demon's trachea.

"Where the hell is my daughter you pudgy little fuck!" Dante snarled.

Sid tried to cough but his throat hadn't healed enough. In his anger Dante had forgotten that low class demons took longer to heal from such injuries, so he passed the time by introducing Sid's face to his fist a few dozen times.

"Field!" Sid barked desperately, "alive!"

Dante shot out his shoulders once more, both the demon and the father in him absolutely relished his cries of pain.

"What did you do with her?" the question was carefully controlled. Dante didn't have time to have a verbal battle with this slithery opponent.

"Tiamatu!" was the only word Sid could choke out as Dante was once again applying pressure to his not-yet-healed throat.

That name was well known to Dante. Sparda had told him and Vergil the legend when they were just boys and Dante was smart enough to know that when a demon tells you a legend it's as good as a history lesson.

With no further discussion or hesitation Dante blasted Ivory between Sid's eyes enough times so that it was difficult to tell there was ever a head there to begin with. He set off to find his daughter, praying to whoever was listening that he wasn't too late.

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Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion! (sorry, just always wanted to say that. Also, thanks for the reviews, they're greatly appreciated!)


	14. Chapter 14

The pebbles by Yuki's feet trembled as a great void opened in the earth. Massive claws gripped each side and dug deep gouges in the ground. What came next was an enormous form, shaped much after a jungle cat except demonic and decidedly larger. Once it was free of the demon world the portal snapped shut. He looked around through pure white eyes and spotted Yuki.

"Have you called me, half breed?"

Yuki was in shocked awe. Too late she realized what a terrible mistake she just made. Unfortunately it took standing in the wake of an infamously powerful demon to make her understand how weak she really was.

'_No'_ she thought to herself '_I am strong, like my father.'_

"Yeah, sorry to ruin your whole scary-demon-just-woke-up thing, but it's late and I'm probably in a lot of trouble." Yuki felt calmer as she sassed the great demon. "So I'm just gonna kill you quick and then go home and take a shower. K?"

Tiamatu was incredulous. No one spoke to him like that, especially not some half-breed little shit like her. Besides, beneath her bravado he could feel her fear. He had tasted her blood after all.

"Cursed child of Sparda, you are hardly worth my effort."

Without waiting for him to make the first move Yuki whipped out her little pistol and shot every round directly into one of his white eyes. Tiamatu yelled in pain and surprise. Yuki's aim was true, every bullet hit the mark and had her gun been a bit bigger she could have done some serious damage. As it was all she managed to do was partially blind and enrage him.

"Traitorous spawn! I will give you a fate worse than death!" Tiamatu tensed his muscles, Yuki could already tell which way he was about to move and was reloading as she moved to compensate his change of position. He vibrated for a moment with demonic energy then made his move. She did not expect his speed.

The demon moved so quickly that her eyes could not track it. It was only because of her most recently acquired sense that she managed to move at the last second so that a claw grazed her back instead of being dragged across her soft belly. Yuki cried out in pain, a long streak of blood trailing from the top of her left shoulder blade to the right side of her lower back. She was lucky the demon was over confident or it would have put real force behind the attack and severed her spinal cord.

Tiamatu suddenly appeared in front of her. "It seems as though the weaker a creature is, the more likely it will try to prove its strength." He eyed Yuki with contempt and raised a massive paw as he was about to crush her into nothingness. "But even I would have expected a better fight from a child of Sparda."

With that Tiamatu brought down his paw.

He recoiled in sudden agony. Yuki saw a familiar sword buried deep in the leg.

"Well then, ugly, I'd hate to disappoint."

Profound relief flooded Yuki's system closely followed by the nausea that accompanies extreme blood-loss. Dante sauntered up to the demon, his face betraying none of the anxiety he felt for his daughter.

"Well, well," he began, "I thought I saw a puddy-tat."

He called Rebellion back. The sword dislodged itself with a sickening squelch and flew into his waiting hand. Dante raised the blade towards Tiamatu in a threatening gesture.

"Here kitty, kitty."

Tiamatu roared in anger. How dare this pitiful mutt taunt him! He lunged at Dante, unleashing his full speed. Unfortunately for the great demon, Dante was much more practiced at relying on more than just his sight. The two bodies clashed and broke apart. For just a few precious moments everything was still.

"Ugn," Dante dropped to a knee, blood pouring from the wound on his shoulder. He pressed his hand into the injury and turned to face his opponent.

The demon was not unscathed. It stood on shaking legs and red liquid drenched its chest. A booming laugh echoed across the field.

"It has been a while since anyone has drawn my blood." He turned to Dante.

"Aw, stop it, you're making me blush," Dante's shoulder wound had already stopped bleeding. "How long has it been since someone lobbed off your head?"

The two were thrown into battle once again, previous wounds not hindering either. Fights like this were what Dante used to live for, before he had a wife and daughter. So rarely did he get a true challenge. It was opponents like this that made him stronger by showing him where he was getting sloppy.

Both broke apart panting heavily. Dante swiped a hand across his brow to keep the sweat from his eyes. He allowed himself a quick glance at Yuki. Somehow the little brat was still standing even though she was pale as her hair. This fight needed to end soon so he could get her medical attention.

"Alright, Fluffy. This has been fun but I've got other shit to do."

Tiamatu hesitated, something about Dante had changed. Somehow the half-human seemed stronger.

"Would you come if I opened a can of tuna?"

Dante's mocking finally got to the demon and it charged at him, enraged. It was the moment Dante had been waiting for, the moment that his opponent was so annoyed that it left huge openings in its defense.

"Jackpot."

It was almost disgusting how easily Dante sliced Rebellion straight through the 'Demon of the Abyss'. As soon as the blade hit Tiamatu's heart he exploded in a burst of bright light. Dante reflexively dove in front of Yuki as a residual blast of strong wind ripped through the forgotten valley. He held her cradled to his chest. A metallic clang from behind caught his attention.

Lying where Tiamatu had died was a long, elegant katana. The hilt of the sword was wrapped in white over a black background, the blade itself was a highly reflective black and the entire sword was shaped as a slight 'S'. This was the Sword of the Abyss, captured once more. But Dante didn't even give it a second glance. He was much more distracted by the fact that his daughters wound had drenched his arm in blood.

"Hi Daddy," she smiled at him weakly. "Mad at me?" Dante barked out a single, strangled laugh.

"Ask me that again when your blood isn't staining my favorite shirt," he couldn't remember his anger at the moment but was sure once she healed that it would come back full-force. He stood smoothly with his daughter in one arm, walked to the sword and picked it up with the other. The sun finally broke the horizon, coating the field in life-giving light.

"I'm cold," Yuki complained. Her voice was scarcely a whisper.

"Blood loss will do that to you," Dante answered, being more then aware what blood loss felt like.

Walking carefully so as not to jar her, Dante headed back the way he came. Under most circumstances Dante would be sprinting for the nearest hospital or at the very least been panicking that his child was going to bleed out, but he felt something new in Yuki. There was demonic energy in her, it was weak but it was there. Spending so long next to the powerful aura of Tiamatu must have set off some of her own dormant power. Right now her injury was healing itself and her blood was replenishing. Not as quickly as it someday would, but fast enough that her life was in no danger. She would be in pain for a couple days but as far as Dante was concerned she deserved it.

"Ah," she groaned as Dante tried to carefully readjust her, her face was contorted in pain. "Am I dying?"

"Yuki," Dante began with a sigh, "you are in way too much trouble for me to let you die."

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	15. Chapter 15

Dante was slouched down in his favorite old armchair facing the large wall of windows. He had had to fight tooth and nail to give it its rightful place in the living room, but sitting quietly in the early light of the morning after a night like last night made it all worth it. He was nursing a glass of wine, pinning for the days when his fridge was filled with cheap beer and half-empty pizza boxes. There was a photo album sitting out on the coffee table. Dante had planned on looking through it but right now he was just relishing the fact that Yuki was safe in her bed, healing from a pretty nasty back wound. Besides, looking through baby photos really wasn't his style. It was nostalgic enough just to look around the unchanged apartment. Well, relatively unchanged, Yuki had been a pretty destructive kid.

He glanced over at the couch. That was where Yuki had learned to stand. At the time Dante didn't know whether to be elated or horrified, she was causing enough damage just by crawling. Obviously he cheered for her when she looked over at him. He had felt like a complete idiot, but what the hell. When your greatest achievements include rolling over and eating semi-solid food, standing up is a pretty big damn deal.

Of course following on the heels of standing is walking. Dante chuckled to himself as he remembered how Yuki's first step immediately preceded her first face plant. Apparently that had also been her first brush with gravity because she looked up in complete surprise for a minute and then opened that little mouth just as wide as she could and wailed. Not just cried, wailed. Had he not seen the creature making the noise with his own two eyes he would have sworn someone just stabbed a banshee. Before he even knew what he was doing Dante had scooped up his young daughter and attempted to soothe her. It had been frightening at first, holding such a tiny little thing. She had seemed so fragile.

Dante was jarred back into the present by the sound of a door quietly opening. Light footsteps tip-toed down the hall towards him.

"You're not very stealthy, Yuki," Dante sighed. "What do you want?"

She went slowly into the periphery of the living room. Her eyes remained downcast.

"Where's mommy?" even her voice was timid.

"She's on her way back with Lady, they went pretty far out of the city limits looking for you." Dante didn't have the energy to be angry right now.

"Oh." Yuki stayed standing.

"You need sleep," Dante was wondering how she was standing at all, she was obviously exhausted. Still she stayed where she was, not meeting his eyes. "How's the back?"

"Hurts," she answered simply.

"That's what you get," Dante shrugged, "you're lucky it wasn't worse."

Yuki nodded. The sun was still relatively low on the horizon casting the city in a deep orange light. Finally she met his eyes.

"Am I a bad demon?"

Shit. Dante really didn't want to deal with this right now. For starters she looked like she was about to pass out, and also he just couldn't muster up the appropriate level of pissed at the moment. Instead he lightly set down the glass of wine he had still yet to take a sip from and held out an arm to his daughter. She hesitated.

"Aren't you mad at me?"

"Yup, get over here."

Tentatively Yuki came up to his outstretched arm. Dante lifted her into his lap and rested her against him while avoiding her heavily bandaged wound. She nestled in tightly and fell asleep almost instantly. Lightly, Dante brushed some of her rebellious white hair behind her ear and slipped back into his memories.

The first night they had brought her home Trish wouldn't set her down. If Dante had ever had any doubts as to whether a demon who didn't have parents could be a good mother they were quickly, and violently, put to rest. Trish absolutely glowed with love for their daughter. The crib in Yuki's room went unused for the first two weeks she was home because Trish never put her down. Perhaps the idea that demons such as herself and Dante could create something so perfect had seemed so unreal that she couldn't let Yuki out of her sight for fear that the precious child would simply disappear.

As if his thoughts had summoned her, the front door opened and Trish slipped quietly inside. She headed straight for the living room.

"Hey," she greeted him. The anti-climactic greeting made him smile.

"Hey," he returned simply, relishing the surge of happiness at seeing his family safe and home. Trish walked up to the pair and gently stroked Yuki's hair.

"Looks like you found something last night," Trish teased lightly, like Dante she was just too tired and too relieved to deal with anything serious right now.

"Yup, can I keep it?" Dante looked up at Trish with mock pleading, she laughed.

"I don't know, she looks like a lot of work." Trish noticed the bandage under Yuki's shirt. "Is it bad?"

"Nah, it should be healed up in a couple of days." Dante assured her. He looked his wife over. Not a hair out of place or even a smudge in her make-up yet still she seemed so much more fragile. As much as he didn't want to admit it he knew exactly how she felt.

Dante stood carefully with Yuki still in his arms. He tilted his head towards Trish and she lifted her face ready to accept a kiss. Instead Dante rested his forehead on hers. They stayed like that, committing this moment to memory. Dante broke the contact and kissed her lightly on the head in an uncommon gesture of comfort. Trish was surprised but grateful.

"Come on," she turned to head down the hall, "I'm exhausted."

Dante followed, more than happy to put the night behind them.


	16. Chapter 16

It was the first time Yuki had been allowed out of her room since the incident. Part of her punishment was that she was bed-ridden until her back healed and after the first few hours she thought she was going insane.

"Don't worry Yuki," Trish had assured her with a smile, "you won't get bored, I talked to your teachers and they have lots of things for you to do while you're out of school."

That was five days ago, now Yuki didn't even have a scar. She was currently crouched over the kitchen floor, scrubbing. With a toothbrush.

"If I'm gonna have to keep doing chores like this I'll need to befriend some talking animals." Yuki knew better than to complain about her punishments, especially after the stunt she pulled, but that didn't mean she couldn't be snarky.

"Sure, we could get you a little white apron and a shaggy looking dog while you're at it," Dante sassed right back. He was on Yuki detail today, which meant she preferred to call him warden. That was another condition, constant supervision. She didn't even have a door to her room anymore.

Yuki stood with a flourish. "Ta da!"

Dante clapped and called for an encore. Yuki scowled, but obediently refilled her soap bucket and started again. She cleaned it three times before Dante let her break for lunch. He hadn't been wrong when he assumed his anger would come back after he was rested and she was healed. Unfortunately he knew that they couldn't keep her under lock and key forever, and he was terrified at the idea of her regaining independence.

Yuki wandered back into the living room with a PB & J sandwich and a glass of milk filled so high she had to take slow, even steps just to keep it from sloshing over the edge. She plopped down in the middle of the floor and began eating.

"What do you want me to do next?" Yuki asked. Well, actually it sounded more like, "Mfft 'd ooo ant ma 't 'd neft?" because she had a mouth full of peanut butter but Dante got the general idea.

"How long since you cleaned the bathroom?" He asked, it was getting hard to keep track of everything Yuki had cleaned. She held up four fingers and then brought them down again, letting her middle finger linger just a little longer than the rest. Dante smirked.

"Four hours ago? Is that all?" Despite what had brought all of this on he was immensely enjoying himself. He decided it was his mission in life to make this month as miserable as he could for Yuki to ensure that she would never put herself in such a stupid and dangerous position again. Unfortunately as she was his child stupid and dangerous was in her blood. He was about to tell her what her next chore was going to be when he was interrupted by a sudden and insistent knocking at the door.

"Stay," he commanded Yuki as she was about to spring up, she slumped back onto the carpet with a scowl.

Dante rose from his seat and walked swiftly to the door. As soon as he had it cracked open a lithe female form forced her way in and shut the door behind her, fumbling with the locks before turning to face her host.

"Hi," she greeted easily.

"Lady," he responded with equal nonchalance.

"So not to intrude or anything," she spoke as she quickly walked around Dante, "but I may have ran into a snafu."

"A snafu," Dante repeated, following.

"Yeah, a tiny little snag," she was checking the windows and closing the curtains, "it's practically nothing."

"Uh-huh." Dante crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. In his experience, when Lady got like this it was best just to wait until she decided to let you in on what was going on. Yuki, on the other hand, was ecstatic that something was finally happening. She was bored as hell.

Lady checked a couple other rooms and when she was satisfied that the place was secure she came back into the living room. Dante raised his eyebrows expectantly. Lady glanced quickly to Yuki and then back to Dante.

"Yuki, take your dishes into the kitchen," his eyes never left Lady.

"But I want to know what's going on…" she began, one sharp look from Dante had her up and out of the room.

"So yesterday when…" Dante held up a hand, effectively cutting Lady off midsentence.

"Yuki," he spoke without raising his voice, "I really hope you're not eavesdropping on top of all the other crap you've pulled." His only response was soft footsteps covering the distance to the sink and water being turned on.

Lady spoke again.

"I was hired yesterday to eliminate a demon that was terrorizing a family just outside the city, it was an easy kill, big money."

"So you came to rub it in?"

"No," Lady answered with such seriousness that Dante perked up a bit. "I came because…" she stopped when Yuki came back out of the kitchen. Dante didn't look over at her, he simply pointed down the hallway and she complied with minimal grumbling. Then, as he remembered her bedroom had no door, he changed his mind.

"Go take a shower Yuki, you smell like pine sol."

When the door slammed shut Lady continued.

"I came because I think Yuki might be in danger."

Dante sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"When is she not?" He heaved himself out of his relaxed position. "Why is she in danger this time?"

"Tiamatu was a powerful demon." She stated simply.

"And now he's a dead demon," Dante shrugged.

"Not quite." Lady motioned to the katana. "But more importantly, according to the demon I killed your little angel has made quite an impact in the demon world."

Dante paled a little. He knew what it was like to walk in the shoes of a great demon slayer.

"They're coming for her." It was a statement, not a question.

"They don't want another Dante, figure if they kill her now she won't become a problem later."

"And this is why you felt the need to come barging in?"

"I passed three suspicious people on my way over here and I'm almost positive the maintenance guy down the hall isn't here to fix someone's door."

Dante hadn't even thought to keep his guard up, not here, in his home. Reaching out with his senses he had to admit that something was off with someone on this floor. Not demonic, just… off.

"Well, fuck." He couldn't think of anything else to say.

"To be fair it was bound to happen eventually. What with you being the father and all." Lady was trying to help.

He should have assumed demons would come after Yuki eventually, and he had, just not so soon. Even he, one of two sons of Sparda was well into his teens before he was targeted.

Lady was quiet a moment to let Dante think. What could he do? Moving would help for a little while, but it was a temporary fix at best. He couldn't kill every demon, though it was a tempting idea. No, it wouldn't matter how careful he was, eventually one of them would have a go at Yuki and there would be nothing he could do to prevent that.

"I guess I really don't have a choice." He spoke, seeming defeated yet determined.

"Meaning?"

"I'll train her. Not the pointless crap we've been doing up until now, I'm talking about real training." He looked at the freshly captured Tiamatu. "I mean hell, if she's going to have a piece of hardware like that she might as well know how to use it."

Lady nodded and went to sit on the couch. She agreed with Dante's decision, though personally she thought he should have been doing that from the beginning and not wasting time.

Yuki reemerged from the bathroom moments later.

"I can't get the smell of industrial cleaners off. If it bothers you then I'm just going to have to not clean anything for a while," she spoke sullenly.

"That won't be a problem." Dante said easily.

"Really?" Yuki was suspicious as to what else he was going to make her do.

"Really." Dante stopped to think for a moment. He had hoped to let her have a few more years without worrying about all of this. Honestly he had hoped he could protect her forever. But part of protecting her was teaching her to protect herself. As much as he hated the thought, he wasn't going to be able to save her every time. His mind was made up.

"You know the room at the end of the hall?"

Of course she knew the room, it was the only place she wasn't allowed.

"The weapons room?" She had no idea where he was going with this.

"That's the one. I want you to go in there and get warmed up, I'll be there in a few minutes."

Yuki was incredulous. This was supposed to be punishment? Not only was she finally going to be allowed in the once forbidden room but she also got to start training again? Thinking it better not to question him, she scurried off.

"Trish isn't going to like this." Lady commented off-handedly.

"Which is why you're going to stay here and explain the situation to her when she comes home." It was said as a statement but Dante's quick glance at her made it into a request.

"Might as well, I haven't had the opportunity to cook for anyone in a while. Between you and her I doubt the poor kid's ever had a home-cooked meal."

"Trish is getting better at those take and bake pizzas," Dante shrugged and sauntered off down the hall.

"Dante?" Lady called down the hall after him. He stopped to look back. "Try not to be too hard on her."

Dante responded with his most mischievous smirk and disappeared into the room.

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Thank you everyone so much for continuing to read this story! I'm so grateful for all of the comments. Also, sorry it took so long to upload but I've found my muse once more and should be getting another couple chapters out pretty soon.


	17. Chapter 17

"Again." The word was cold and demanding. Yuki stood on wobbly legs, cursing herself for ever looking forward to this.

"Do you expect to achieve anything with that sloppy form?" Dante demanded harshly. He came from nowhere and knocked her back onto the mat. "Again."

Once more she stood, favoring her right leg which had a particularly bad bruise on the knee. Dante gave her a withering look and she decided to ignore the pain rather than face his wrath.

Sweat was pouring down her face, her hair was plastered to her forehead from the perspiration. They had been doing this for seven hours straight. Yuki had never trained this long, and never like this. It was as if Dante had never really taught her anything and she hated feeling like she was starting from scratch.

Dante lunged towards her, she could either dodge and be forced to put all of her weight on the right leg or be slammed back into the mat again. The moment's hesitation decided for her and she found herself once more sprawling on her back.

"Again."

She flinched at the word, but stood none the less. Once more in position, once more flying to the mat, once more hearing the demanding "again" from her father. She had never seen him like this, at least not towards her. There was no warmth, no compassion, it didn't seem as if he was holding back, like he didn't care whether or not he hurt her. Well that should have been obvious by now considering her multiple bruises and the nasty mat burn down her left arm.

Standing, she found her position and instead of deciding what to do this time, she simply moved, dodging the attack regardless of the inevitable pain it would bring her. Dante lunged, she dodged… and still found herself flying into the mat. This time, however, there was no 'again' ordering her to her feet. She waited, enjoying the brief reprieve but bracing herself for the command. Instead, she saw her father crouching before her.

"I think that's enough for tonight." It was the most gentle his voice had sounded all day. He reached out a hand to help her up, only to inspect the mat burn he saw on her arm. "Go sit in the chair, Yuki."

She complied without complaint, simply relieved that the day was through. Dante knelt beside her and rubbed something into her arm. It stung for a second before an intense cooling sensation took over. While Yuki relished the absence of pain Dante inspected the bruise on her knee, which was turning purple.

"You know," he said, standing, "that wouldn't be nearly as bad as it is now of you had just kept dodging instead of letting it distract you."

Yuki stood, and almost fell as her knee gave out.

"Shit!" she exclaimed as she nearly went crashing right back into the mat. Dante caught her and helped to steady her back onto her feet.

"Things like that get stiff pretty fast," he explained, though he couldn't remember that last time he had had a bruise long enough for it to cause pain. "At the risk of sounding cliché, walk it off."

She scoffed and limped to the door, walking out with Dante close behind, just in case she fell again. He hated being so hard on her, hated that he was the cause of the pain she now felt. Unfortunately, her enemies would not care. They would love to hurt her, hell, they would love to do a lot more than just hurt her. This way, she got used to working through pain. Also, as an added bonus, constant injuries were the best way to speed up her body's ability to heal. Sure, it would take a couple months, but eventually she too would heal fast enough so that pain wouldn't hinder her for long.

"Go put some ice on your knee," Dante instructed as they reached the living room. Yuki left for the kitchen and he met the gaze of his none-too-happy wife. Dante's heart clenched at the sight of her. She had been crying, he had never known Trish to cry. He shifted his gaze to the floor. Leaning against a wall and crossing his arms he spoke.

"Has Lady filled you in?" He knew the answer.

"Yes." Her voice was strong, almost no trace of emotion. "And you won't be the only one teaching our daughter how to defend herself."

Dante looked up in surprise. He had expected a fight, expected Trish to be livid over his decision, especially since he had made it without her. His only response to her was an arched eyebrow.

"I think you should be in charge the main chunk of the training," Trish continued. "Yuki's temperament is almost identical to yours so she'll probably fight like you too. I'll supplement her lessons in defense."

"What's wrong with my defense?" Dante asked, mildly insulted. It was Trish's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"I'm not even entirely sure where to begin answering that." Trish looked thoughtful for a moment. "You always end attacks with appallingly sloppy form. More often than not you let an enemy hit you because you know you'll heal quickly and you will always abandon defense for a chance at an attack."

"Oh, don't forget how he draws most fights out much longer than he needs to." Lady chimed in happily. Dante glared at her.

"I don't see how that's relevant."

"It's not," she admitted, "I was just caught up in critiquing your fighting form."

"Thanks," he said sarcastically.

"Any time."

"Fine," he looked over at Trish, who no longer had any trace of tears, "I'll do Monday through Friday you can take over weekends."

"She'll need time to do homework," Trish added, "and some semblance of a social life."

"Well thanks to her last night on the town she's grounded indefinitely, so that takes care of the social life. As far as homework is concerned she can do that after school before we start the days training." Dante had been thinking about this all day and was pretty sure he had it figured out.

"And when we're gone? Our jobs aren't exactly 9-5. There's no way we can leave her alone in the apartment anymore." Trish had also been thinking about this, and she was much better about being practical than Dante.

"Ow," a groan caught everyone's attention. Yuki was limping out of the kitchen towards the group. Dante glanced at the bruise and was pleased to see that the coloring wasn't as deep as before, it would be gone by tomorrow.

Carefully Yuki lowered herself onto the couch and looked around at the brooding adults.

"Did someone die?" she asked, tactful as usual.

"Nearly," Trish answered, giving her daughter a meaningful look. Yuki blushed and had sense enough to look ashamed. Trish reached over and stroked her snowy hair, now grown well past her shoulders. "You need sleep," she murmured gently.

Yuki nodded, "I'll go to be soon." She carefully moved next to her mother and laid her head in Trish's lap. The affection was uncommon but understandable. After spending the entire day getting the crap beaten out of her she just wanted some comfort, which Trish was more than willing to provide.

The adults continued talking logistics for a while longer until Dante noticed Yuki was sound asleep on her mother's lap. Gently he scooped her into his arms and was once again startled by just how tiny she was. He had a moment of panic. What was he thinking, teaching his child how to fight? She needed to be protected not thrust into danger. Sensing his conflict, Trish laid a hand on his shoulder.

"I know she's small now, but she'll grow." The words didn't particularly comfort Dante, but they did strengthen his resolve.

"I used to be that small," Lady chimed in, "and I've never had any demon blood in me."

"You're still small," Dante teased, but Lady was right. Yuki had the potential to become a great fighter just so long as he continued to train her.

Dante turned and walked down the hall with Yuki still sleeping soundly in his arms. She stirred slightly.

"What happened to 'walk it off'?" she mumbled.

"It's a lot easier to do when you're conscious."

"Details," she trailed off.

Gently, Dante laid her in her bed in the center of her stuffed-animal army. She snuggled down and breathed a contented sigh.

Just as he was about to close the door behind him, Yuki spoke.

"Daddy?"

"Yeah kid?"

"Are we ever going to have fun again?" tired as she was, even she knew that her life was changing.

"Yuki," Dante began, "after you learn the basics I'm going to show you what fun really is."

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Sooooo… if anyone read the note at the end of my last chapter they would know that I'm a filthy liar. Sorry. Unfortunately until recently everything I wrote for O.F.M. was complete crap. Thank you for bearing with me and I really am sorry it takes me so long to update.

Familiar-abyss


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